it was overly proscriptive. a lot of educators complain about it. there are positive and negative features of the federal rule. most people don't agree about the local school. a good solid majority of people have a favorable opinion of their public school, thank you think they do a pretty good job. >> jan asks you to speak about the move towards common core and what you think the impact might be on nclb. >> well the -- >> what is common core? >> well, the common core was a movement begun by the national governance and the school's superintendents. they were reacting to the fact that our country with educational standards set by every state had a total hodgepodge of academic standards. if your child is learning up in oregon and learning english and math there and then moves to florida, if they're in the fifth grade, they may be at a completely different level. they may not have been studying the same thing. and basically, the business community across this country that has corporate executives that move around a lot, they found this intolerable. and

lessons learned. >> there are lessons learned, as there are in all things, and this bill is less proscriptive. this is a very regulation-light bill. this is a security bill. this is not a regulatory bill per se. so, -- but in terms just of management and organization, yes, there are some lessons learned. >> great. and i know that a lot of times when we read news media accounts about cybersecurity, and even as we discuss it among ourselves, often times we tend to focus on large companies and breaches that large companies experience. the truth is a lot of small and mid-size companies carry a lot of sensitive information. is dhs working with small to mid-size companies in the way to reach out to them, to talk about best practices or anything like that? >> we conduct a lot of outreach activities will small and medium-sized businesses on a whole host of cyber-related areas. so the answer is yet. >> great. we always want to make sure our small businesses are taken care of, and obviously if they're the weak link in the chain, that's a real problem. >> senator, as i continued to emphasize, when year

lessons learned. >> there are lessons learned, as there are in all things, and this bill is less proscriptive. this is a very regulation-light bill. this is a security bill. this is not a regulatory bill per se. so, -- but in terms just of management and organization, yes, there are some lessons learned. >> great. and i know that a lot of times when we read news media accounts about cybersecurity, and even as we discuss it among ourselves, often times we tend to focus on large companies and breaches that large companies experience. the truth is a lot of small and mid-size companies carry a lot of sensitive information. is dhs working with small to mid-size companies in the way to reach out to them, to talk about best practices or anything like that? >> we conduct a lot of outreach activities will small and medium-sized businesses on a whole host of cyber-related areas. so the answer is yet. >> great. we always want to make sure our small businesses are taken care of, and obviously if they're the weak link in the chain, that's a real problem. >> senator, as i continued to emphasize, when year