[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 72 (Thursday, May 20, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H3499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, I have been sitting here for some time this 
evening listening to the discussion and I am struck by the tone. We 
have had speakers from both sides of the aisle rise to discuss 
different things. I notice that my colleagues from this side of the 
aisle have risen to celebrate an anniversary of World War II, to talk 
about an important economic and trade issue with the developing nation 
of India, to talk about the tragedy of the pain of unborn children and 
my colleagues from the other side of the aisle have taken every 
occasion with every speaker to make outrageous claims and to engage in 
vicious partisan attacks against the President of the United States and 
the Republican Party and it saddens me.
  But tonight I wish to join my colleagues from this side of the aisle 
in a celebration. As we celebrate the anniversary of the landmark Brown 
v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision this week, we have an 
excellent opportunity to recognize some of the vast improvements made 
in the quality of education available to America's children over the 
past 50 years.
  In the Brown v. Board of Education case, the doctrine of ``separate 
but equal'' education for different groups of students was found to 
produce unequal results and was ruled unconstitutional. On this 
important anniversary, Mr. Speaker, we are working to ensure another 
group of students, our special needs children, receive the same high 
quality education available to every child in Minnesota and America.
  Because no two students are the same and no two schools face 
identical challenges, one of the most important elements in any Federal 
education law is flexibility. I am pleased to share with my colleagues 
one of the many ways in which our committee, the Committee on Education 
and the Workforce, has worked with the Department of Education to 
enhance that flexibility for our schools. Following implementation of 
the No Child Left Behind education law, teachers and administrators 
expressed concern and many of them to me over the last year that 
special needs children were required to pass the same tests as their 
non-special needs counterparts. At the same time parents of special 
needs children expressed concern that exempting their children from 
testing altogether would eliminate the ability to monitor their 
progress. To address these competing concerns, the Department of 
Education issued a rule providing States and school districts with the 
flexibility to provide alternate tests to determine the adequate yearly 
progress for children with the most severe disabilities. Under the 
rule, alternate tests can be administered only to children with the 
most significant cognitive disabilities, only 1 percent of all 
students, or about 10 percent of students with disabilities. All other 
students with disabilities will take either the regular State 
assessments or assessments aligned with State standards designed to 
compensate for the child's disability.
  Because it prohibits States and schools from excluding students with 
disabilities from accountability systems, the No Child Left Behind 
provides parents of these children with something they have never had 
before, the right to know whether their children are getting the 
education they deserve, what every parent wants.
  I believe we are making great strides toward improving the quality of 
education available to every child in America. I remain committed to 
addressing the concerns of parents, teachers and administrators as we 
seek to not only maintain but to build on this quality. I look forward 
to continuing the fight to provide the necessary flexibility to 
accommodate those States and those schools who wish to participate.
  Leaving no child behind means leaving no child behind, not ``no child 
except children with disabilities.'' On this important anniversary, Mr. 
Speaker, we are living up to that promise.

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