Student Success Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROKITA. I thank the chairman of Education and Workforce for yielding me time.

Well, here we are again, with perhaps the culmination of this debate that started yesterday afternoon here on the floor and what's been going on in committee now for several weeks and in this Nation for 12 years.

Mr. Chairman, it's been 12 years since we've been on the floor debating these issues. I'm encouraged by that fact alone--that some of us had the leadership, responsibility, and the courage to bring some of these issues to the floor for the betterment of our teachers, our parents, and most of all, our students.

I rise now in strong opposition to the substitute amendment offered by my colleague from California. I oppose this amendment for a number of reasons. It's more of the same ``Washington knows best'' that's brought us here today. It turns out, as we hear from parents in our districts, Washington doesn't know best. A bureaucrat sitting in an office in Washington, by definition, Mr. Chairman, doesn't know our children and can't possibly know what is best for a student in Indiana or anywhere else in this Nation.

Who do you believe, Mr. Chairman, knows a child best? Is it the bureaucrats in this 10- or 11-story rectangle-like building known as the Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education? Or is it this mother or this father who knows their child? Who do you trust, Mr. Chairman, with your children? Do you trust the bureaucrats in this building a thousand miles away from where you live or do you trust you and your wife? Who do the parents of America trust more to educate their children? Their local teacher or these bureaucrats?

Throughout the amendment and debate process for the Student Success Act and the remarks offered now in support of this amendment, we've heard time and time again how the Student Success Act is an attack on children, teachers, and all other sorts of demagoguery and doom and gloom. Don't believe it. Because if you listen closely and certainly if you read the plain meaning of the text of this amendment and everything else that's been written and said about these reforms that we're going to make here on the House floor today, you would find that at the very essence of all of them we find that the other side and those that talk against the Student Success Act inherently trust these bureaucrats more than parents or teachers. They continuously say, We know best. We are smarter than those of us who raise our own children.

The truth of the matter is that this amendment offered by my colleague is the real attack on children, parents, and teachers. It attacks teachers by holding them to Washington-based standards, not local ones, when we know in fact that every school is different. It attacks parents by robbing them of the hopes and dreams that they have for their children and takes away so many decisions that these parents can make to guide their children's future. They know best. Worst of all, this is an attack on children. Washington-based education policy attacks children by endangering their chance at success and a brighter future by hamstringing them with teaching to test results as opposed to teaching to success in life.

The Student Success Act ensures parents can be in direct contact with those who are setting education policy for their children and their teachers and holds them accountable.

There's a reason why this bill has received so much support from groups like the American Association of School Administrators, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National School Boards Association, and the School Superintendents Association. They all support this bill. The Student Success Act will give States and schools the flexibility and incentive to administer their policies effectively. The Student Success Act encourages teachers to be innovative while also responsibly measuring success.

It's been said here just recently and time and time again that tenure and credentialism should be what we measure teachers against. I say no. It doesn't matter how long, Mr. Chairman, a teacher has taught or how many classes they've taken. What matters is how well their kids are learning, what their success is. And that's what the Student Success Act does. It will give parents the authority and choice that they deserve as they make decisions about their child's future, and it will give the students themselves the best opportunity to succeed. That's the best thing we can do here on the floor of the House today.

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