Christopher J. Dodd: “We need to, as a country, both parties, all of our leaders need to work together to try to reverse this image.”

Senator Mel Martinez, of Florida, a Republican member of this Committee, and Dianne Feinstein, the Senator from California, were the two who really argued very strongly.

I think the high rate at one point in the Nixon Administration is we were spending something close to 6 percent of the Federal budget on secondary and elementary education in this country, the Federal Government was.

Today, I think the figure is less than 2 percent.

So the question is whether or not... you would recommend that there be some statutory response to that.