How do we create jobs without creating this funding cliff?

Don't misunderstand me. I happen to be one of those in favor of a longer school year.

I would submit it is vitally important, and so again, with all this pressure from No Child Left Behind, I hope we think about those other two things.

I hope that we are being diligent in trying to check that.

I think that the President was very bold in the Recovery Act, and I think that he met that by putting that money in there for education.

A longer school year.

Now we just want to make sure that we use it well and wisely.

Well, how can we be helpful both on the authorizing end, but also on this end, the Appropriations Committee, if there are things that we need to pilot or we need to look at in terms of boosting some funds some place, to enhance that, I…

I agree that we should not charge students more for their student loans in order to generate profits for lenders.

The administration strongly believes Federal student aid resources should be focused on broadening access to higher education for all Americans.

There is a huge opportunity here to invest in leadership, and that would cure many of the problems that ail us.

Mr. Secretary, thank you very much. You have been very generous with your time and input and I'm sure that we will be dealing with your people and others as we move ahead on this appropriations process.

We are concerned about that cut in the base.

You can't guess at what is important. You need to know what is happening.

I am concerned about making up the gap for next year.

More of the same in our dropout factories will not help children succeed and beat the odds.

I think there may be a little bit of concern here on this subcommittee and others about making that a mandatory program.

Do you want to improve math scores? Do some music.