Press Releases

This morning, U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-MN) appeared on Bill Bennett’s Morning in America radio program. During the interview, Chairman Kline discussed education reform and House passage of two key pieces of legislation: the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act (H.R. 2587) and the Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act (H.R. 2218).  Excerpts from the interview are below:

On the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act…

“[The National Labor Relations Board] started this process of telling Boeing, ‘After you’ve spent a billion dollars and after you’ve hired more than a thousand people in Charleston, South Carolina,  you can’t do that – you’ve got to shut that down and do everything in Puget Sound [Washington].’ And I think that all of your listeners and listeners across the country, when they hear that something like that could happen, just have to say that’s not right.”

“We passed a bill in the House… a strong bill, good vote … [that] takes that remedy, takes that possibility away from the National Labor Relations Board and says you cannot tell any business in America where they can and cannot go into business.”

“This is one of those cases where yes, the Boeing facility is in Charleston, South Carolina, but this ruling affects everybody in America because it’s intimidating to businesses here and businesses overseas who are thinking about setting up business here – it’s a job killer.”

On the Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act…

“We passed a bill … [that] really does provide more options, more choice; it empowers parents because it allows quality charter schools to replicate, to expand. Old law didn’t allow that, it only provided for the introduction of brand new charter schools. We think [through the] legislation, we’ve given parents more choice and we’ve given them hope.”

On Education Reform…

“All over the place - in Florida, Indiana, Tennessee, and Nevada - you have these Chiefs for Change [and] people who are looking at the status quo and saying, no, we are going to change it. We’re going to not keep teachers who are ineffective, inept and don’t care, we’re going to promote teachers who are doing a really good job, we’re going to have an accountability system that means something. There’s innovation going on all over the place, and I want it to succeed.”

“[No Child Left Behind] expos[ed] some of the shortcomings in the system, because it insists on reporting and data and disaggregated data [and] helped shine some light where some light needed to be shined. Now, our task is to get the heavy foot of the federal government out of the way and do only what we need to do to make sure we’re letting these innovations go forward across the country.”

To listen to the interview, click here. 

 

# # #