This is the kind of community effort that will ensure a vibrant workforce for a growing community even as it enriches the lives of those involved. We must create a future where the quality of education is measured by the amount children actually learn. The best thing we in Washington can do is remove the barriers to creative and effective schooling that have been stifling innovation and ensure that schools resources are not tied up in unnecessary administration and red tape. Congress can set as its goal that student achievement is the standard by which successful schools are judged. In recent years, Congress has established national requirements and standards with which all schools must comply.
Special education is one such example.
If we in Washington are going to dictate for every school district what sort of special education program it must establish, the least we should do is provide the funds to carry out that program so school administrators and teachers can perform their teaching tasks. I will work to make sure congressional mandates are accompanied by congressional funding. This is simply a matter of keeping one s word. As important as early education is, our future also depends on continuing to advance our frontiers of knowledge. Look around and at every turn we find devices considered perfectly ordinary today that were beyond the realm of science fiction just a generation ago.