James M. Jeffords: “First, I commend my good friend from California for her excellent statement and revealing to the Nation the seriousness…”

“First, I commend my good friend from California for her excellent statement and revealing to the Nation the seriousness we have in the ability to provide jobs with qualified workers. Just this past decade, we brought 4 million workers into this country to take the high-skilled jobs of our Nation because we could not provide them from our own school systems. Yet we have thousands and thousands of unemployed and unskilled workers who have managed to get through our school systems without the necessary skills. We have a crisis in this Nation, and we have had it for years, and that is in education. This administration is totally ignoring the fact that where we should be putting the funds is in preventing this necessity of having to bring in workers from foreign nations, whether it be from Europe or elsewhere. Most of them come from Asia now. Millions and millions are coming in. Yet our own young people in this country do not have the skills because their school systems are failing. And we are cutting back and back on the funding for education in this Nation.”