The president of America’s largest teachers union said Wednesday during a Senate hearing that lawmakers should pay attention to her views on educational issues because she is, in her own words, “amazing.”

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, head of the National Education Association, was testifying about the recently-passed Every Student Succeeds Act when she decided to explain that Congress should listen to her more because, well, she’s just really awesome.

“I’m a really, really good sixth grade teacher,” Garcia said early in her testimony. “I give myself goosebumps. I’m amazing.”

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Eskelsen Garcia said it was her sheer awesomeness as a teacher, rather than her status as head of the NEA, which should cause lawmakers to heed her advice.

“I have about 14 hours worth of really good advice to give you. They told me I have five minutes, so I’ll talk really really fast,” she said. “Number one, and I cannot stress this enough: I am a really good teacher. You should really listen to me.”

Eskelsen Garcia wasn’t simply spouting off for no reason. She was hearkening back to the 2002 passage of No Child Left Behind, a massive overhaul of federal education policy that eventually came to be viewed by both conservatives and liberals as deeply flawed. That bill’s problems may have been averted, she said, if Congress had bothered to speak more with skilled classroom teachers. She cited her own experience teaching homeless children in Utah, and realizing how unrealistic it was to expect all her students to test at a proficient level by 2014, as mandated by No Child Left Behind.

“I remember thinking … ‘Did anyone stop to ask a working classroom teacher what might be the unintended consequences of high stakes testing on our most vulnerable students?'” she said.

Eskelsen Garcia also has a bit of a history touting her own excellence. In 2014, for instance, during an address at Wayne State University, she noted that teachers have long been famed for their humility, but then stated I am not humble. I’m an amazing teacher. I was the Utah Teacher of the Year.”

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