John Kline

Mr. KLINE

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment, which will require a GAO study on the money allocated for administrative costs. As the gentleman from Louisiana said, we need to ensure that we are providing flexibility in the use of funds to run a quality, efficient, and effective program; and that means carefully balancing small administrative set-asides while supporting the underlying program purposes. I support this amendment and urge my colleagues to do so as well. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment and claim the time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would require the Secretary of Education to not only develop, but also enforce, guidelines on conflict of interest for charter schools. The gentlewoman points out that there are charter schools and charter school managers who sometimes don't perform as they should. We believe very strongly that the underlying law and that the underlying bill here addresses that issue, because this amendment is an overreach of Federal authority. Each State that allows charter schools has determined what requirements the schools must follow in creating, opening, and operating the schools. We address the authorizing responsibilities in the underlying bill. Simply put, this amendment is unnecessary. The underlying bill includes several provisions to have States help schools run more effectively and includes a set-aside of each State grant for quality authorizing. Quality authorizing will help each charter school run more effectively, both in academics and in operations. We do not need the Secretary of Education getting more involved in these schools by layering on more burdensome requirements. These are issues best addressed at the State and local level, and the underlying bill already provides support for these efforts. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment will force States to reserve more funds for review of public and private charter school funding. The underlying bill, Mr. Chairman, includes audits as an important aspect of quality authorizing measures. In addition, States already require multiple audits of their charter schools. This amendment will take money away from the quality authorizing set-aside, where funds will otherwise be used to support measures to open and run schools with effective operations practices in addition to high-quality academics. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

Mr. KLINE. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. KLINE. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chair, how much time do I have?

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I think the points were made. I thank the ranking member, Mr. Miller, for making those points. What concerns me about the gentlewoman's amendment is this is going to take money away from the purposes for which we have designed it and put it in this bill. We are trying to make sure that good, high-quality charter schools can be expanded and replicated, and this will detract from that ability. So I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor), the distinguished majority leader.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment ensures that foster kids do not face barriers to enrollment in charter schools. The amendment does improve the bill and does help foster kids. I want to thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass) for offering this amendment. I am pleased to yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis).

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I want to say to my colleague that I really appreciate her effort to ensure that all schools, both traditional public schools and public charter schools, share the information needed by parents. We agree on that point, and I believe that the underlying bill addresses it; so I must, regrettably, oppose the gentlelady's amendment, but I certainly thank her for the discussion. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. KLINE. I thank the gentlelady. Mr. Chairman, my concern with the amendment is that this puts additional reporting requirements on the charter schools that are not required of traditional public schools. We are trying to make it easier, and we are trying to streamline the process. We are trying to expand the charter school movement of quality charter schools, and I don't think we should be adding additional burdens onto charter schools which make it harder for them to move forward.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I do appreciate the gentlelady's efforts to get information out there. As I said earlier, unfortunately, I want to be very, very careful in avoiding adding additional burdens or more red tape or more requirements to charter schools at the very time when we are trying to streamline the system and make it easier to expand and to replicate quality charter schools. So, unfortunately, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, although I do not oppose it.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate the work that Ms. Wilson and the other coauthors of this amendment have put into this. I think it helps the bill, and I would urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. KLINE

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. KLINE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment improves the bill. I want to thank the gentlewoman for offering this amendment and bringing it forward and explaining it so eloquently. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.