Rokita: Ready to Work with President on Education Reform

Statement

U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita (IN-04), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, released the following statement regarding new education proposals from the President during the State of the Union address last evening.

"I share President Obama's interest in improving elementary and secondary education. Far too many of our children graduate High School without the tools to neither succeed in college nor join a changing workforce. The President's focus on education shines a welcome light on a growing skills gap between the United States and the world.

"I look forward to working with President Obama as we move forward on reforming our educational system. We must insist on an educational system that ultimately lets every child, and every parent attend a high quality school of their choosing and away from our current system where only privileged children, like those of the President and most Members of Congress have that opportunity.

To do this we must take concrete steps away from the current temporary waiver scheme that continues to tie parents, children and teachers to a law that is broken and work together to rewrite No Child Left Behind and build a better education system in America.

"But in reforming our school system it is essential that we remember a fundamental truth, one that the President denied last night. His claim that we are more than half-way to balancing our budget is patently false. Our debt crisis is worse now than ever. In fact, every single day we are piling more and more debt on our children. If we do not cut spending and get our budget under control, our children will face a future of suffocating deficits and a stagnant economy no matter the quality of their education."

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