[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 10, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          ACCOUNTABILITY BEFORE FLEXIBILITY IN EDUCATION BILL

  (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, later today we will be taking up the rule 
and ultimately the bill on ed flex. I believe in having flexibility at 
the local level, but I think here we are getting the cart before the 
horse. We are forgetting that there ought to be accountability and a 
number of other pieces we ought to be dealing with before we give total 
flexibility.
  Let me tell my colleagues why. I served as superintendent. There we 
required the local systems to identify subgroups. If you do not 
identify the subgroups, to children who are doing the poorest in the 
schools, and that is what the Federal money is designed to do, what you 
do is you mask the children with the greatest needs, and here we are 
talking about lumping all that money together and sending it down.
  I trust the educators, I trust the parents, and I trust the teachers. 
The people I do not trust are the politicians.

                              {time}  1030

  I was there, and they will take that money, and if we do not watch 
them, the children with the greatest needs will be the children who are 
going to be left behind in the 21st century. We will pay a price for 
that, Mr. Speaker.

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