Steve Russell

Mr. RUSSELL

Mr. RUSSELL. Madam Chair, for 200 years, we educated our children without Federal intrusion. During that time, we not only founded our Nation and strengthened it and held it together during a Civil War, we won two World Wars and put a man on the Moon. We did it with the innovative spirit that local, educated States, families, and people had without Federal intrusion mandating how they should be educated. Now, we see an opportunity to preserve individual freedom, to preserve States' rights, to protect privacy, to allow our teachers, to allow our local school boards, to allow our local communities, to continue to educate. Some States think that some other States don't do a good job. That may be, but it is not their choice, and it is certainly not the Federal Government's choice, to coerce and to put things out there. My State of Oklahoma is often referred to as ``flyover country.'' But our unemployment is 4.2 percent. That is nearly half that of many of these States that think that we ought to have some progressive Federal control of our education. We have no problem putting our population and our workforce to work. We also have the largest per capita population of astronauts and those in the space program. So much for lack of education in flyover country. This is a good measure because we all agree in a bipartisan fashion that No Child Left Behind is bad--and it is leaving children behind-- but we get there not by some collective coercive control. We get there by relying on teachers, school districts, and local control. What this does is repeals the one-size-fits-all accountability metric, which will remain if we do nothing. And I think our colleagues, Madam Chair, would agree. It eliminates over 65 wasteful programs that are currently authorized under law and which will remain if we do nothing. It eliminates mandates that force local schools to reserve 20 percent of their funds for activities that they don't desire to do. Those mandates will remain if we do nothing. And it will also prohibit any agency of the Federal Government from coercing States to adopt Common Core or any other set of standards through waivers, Federal grants, or any other authority. That coercion remains if we do nothing. And, in bipartisan fashion, it eliminates the Feds from having control of individual data from teachers and students--a concern that we all share--and that being sent to the Secretary of Education or the Department of Education. It also covers tribal data protections that are often overlooked as well. It strengthens states' rights language that is absent under No Child Left Behind. Where it says States may do this or that, it is not the Federal Government's authority to do so. Instead, it says States retain the right to. And also, importantly, Madam Chair, it makes provisions for military dependent children, who currently are often overlooked as they move from place to place.

Mr. RUSSELL

Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, February 17, 2015, and that the order of the House of January 6, 2015, regarding morning-hour debate not apply on that day.

Mr. RUSSELL

Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, as a combat veteran, we should never have to fight for something that we can so readily produce here. Why should we put competitors in leverage over our economy and give them dollars to use against us? We hear a lot of talk from progressives on the environment, Mr. Speaker. Imagine a life without petroleum, no cell phones, no asphalt for roads, no synthetic clothing, no plastics. On what do progressives suppose we run our magnificent Nation and lifestyle? Perhaps their answer is sweet bubble love and rainbow stew.