I will work with my colleagues to do whatever I can to support local schools in their efforts to make their schools safe, drug-free and conducive to learning. We are also dedicated that ensuring what happens inside the classroom will improve the way our children are taught. After six years of trying to get the President to talk about the need to ensure that existing federal education programs work, rather than just throwing more money at them, I am heartened by his apparent move toward stressing quality over quantity. We must also work to ensure that any standardized tests or other measures of competence are developed by the states and the local schools, and not in Washington. We cannot improve the way we educate our children without providing parents, teachers and local school boards with the flexibility to meet the needs of individual children.
Some kids require special education or more hands-on education than others.
Not all schools have the facility to handle such special needs. To meet this challenge, we should increase federal funding for special needs children or children with disabilities. I will work to ensure that local schools receive the federal funding they need to improve these critical programs. Moreover, parents often times find that the expense of education is overwhelming. To remedy this, I will once again work with my colleagues to establish education savings accounts.