Student Success Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, since No Child Left Behind was put in place, the
Federal Government has dictated how States and school districts spend
money, gauge student learning and school performance, and hire
classroom teachers.

Frankly, Mr. Chairman, it isn't working. Washington bureaucrats, no
matter how well meaning they are, will never have the personal
understanding of the diverse and special and unique needs of students than the
teachers, administrators, and parents who spend time with them.

Mr. Chairman, I stand here today because I have to speak for Erin and
Moses. Erin is my daughter-in-law and the mother of my four
grandchildren. Moses was a student who tested her teaching ability and
her passion for teaching.

Erin came to teach in a fourth and fifth grade classroom for special
needs students in Cicero, Illinois. Freshly minted out of her
educational training and master's program, she came in with a passion
for teaching.

She came in because she was sent in that classroom as a full-time,
continuing substitute because the teacher of that classroom had gotten
up one day, had walked out of the classroom, and had never come back.

Erin was given the opportunity of a lifetime of teaching these
students, and she began to invest her life into those students,
especially in one young student, a fourth grader by the name of Moses.

Moses came from a difficult situation. Moses at that time in the
fourth grade was not even fully potty-trained, but Erin invested her
time and talent and, frankly, her treasure in the life of that student,
as well as of the others. She had a wonderful outcome in working with
the parent in the home, as well as with Moses in the classroom.

The next year, Erin was given the opportunity to be a full-time
teacher, not a sub anymore. I will never forget the day when Erin came
to me, with tears in her eyes, and said: ``Dad, I'm not sure I'm cut
out for teaching.''

I said: ``Erin, why? You had an amazing impact for that 6 months of
time you spent in the same classroom last year.''

She said: ``Now, all I'm doing is filling out paperwork for Illinois,
for Chicago, and for the Federal Government.''

She ultimately had our twin grandsons and went from the classroom to
the home, but there will be a day that comes when those four kids are
at the stage when she can go back to the classroom. I want Erin to go
back and have the ability to teach, to love on those kids, to direct
them, to work with the parents, and not spend time filling out
bureaucratic forms.

Mr. Chairman, that is why I support the Student Success Act. It
replaces Federal control with State and local control.

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Mr. WALBERG. The bill allows States to establish and implement their
own standards and assessments. The bill allows States to develop their
own accountability plans for improving underperforming schools by
eliminating federally prescribed school improvement and turnaround
interventions. The bill provides State and local school districts
flexibility.

Mr. Chairman, that is what we are speaking for. It is for the Erins
and for the Moseses of the world--educational opportunities that should
lead us into the future in great ways for this country and to lead the
world.

This is what we are talking about, Mr. Speaker. The Student Success
Act places control back in the hands of education's rightful stewards:
the teachers, the administrators, the States, the parents, and,
ultimately, the students.

Let's pass this bill.

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