Thank you, Chairman Harkin, for introducing the Keep Our Educators Working Act yesterday to help preserve jobs for educators.

I would like to thank Chairman Harkin and Senator Enzi and the members of this committee for their great efforts to take advantage of this opportunity and reauthorize ESEA in a bipartisan and effective manner.

I have said for many years, can someone show me in the Constitution of the United States where it says that elementary and secondary education is to be funded by property taxes?

I would like to thank all of you for being here today for the fourth in a series of hearings focused on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The Federal Government never got involved in elementary and secondary education. Never.

I will go to my good friend, Senator Shelby.

I thank the Senator from Ohio. Nothing in health reform legislation would cut existing benefits or restrict the ability of private insurance carriers from covering spiritual care. Further, spiritual care will continue to be recognized as a…

Let us work together. Let us find out.

I want to thank you publicly for having the hearings that you are having around the country on enforcement of antitrust or review of antitrust and agriculture.

I am not here to call into question the integrity of any employee of the Department.

I hope you will send your message to all the agencies from the President.

These questions are about transparency, about openness, and about accountability.

I want a Freedom of Information question and discussion with you.

I support this bill and ask all to support for the teachers, the principals, the counselors, school nurses, and other essential public school employees that are losing their jobs.

The status quo is not acceptable, and it is not acceptable during economic downturns to say that we are just going to take a lot of this out of the hide of education.

It seems to me if there is one legitimate area where we can borrow from the future, it is in education.

This landmark legislation eliminated wasteful corporate subsidies in the Federal student loan program and strengthened the Pell Grant program.

You only get one chance at that, and if we fail our kids, that means we fail our future.