Having said all that, we would gladly take $18,000 a kid in the Denver Public Schools.

We spend roughly $8,000 a kid in Denver. I think we get better results probably than Newark.

How can America sustain itself as a world power if we are allowing huge numbers of our children to fail?

I happen to think it is a national security issue.

What is amazing about that study is what it says about the middle class kids, is that they actually gain ground during the summer when they are not in the programs.

Our Federal spending is roughly 9 percent of what we spend on K-12 education.

I think that needs to be exposed to the entire country.

the idea that we have $12 trillion of debt on our balance sheet, but we haven't been able to make somehow the kind of investments that everybody here is talking about in our human capital and the infrastructure in this country, really does…

the embodiment of an entire generation's commitment to civil rights in this country.

I wish that--I want to come back as a panelist, not as a Senator.

We have focused on other issues to the detriment of our children.

I'd like to thank Chairman Harkin and Senators Murkowski, Brown, Casey, and Bennet for their leadership on efforts to improve the nutritional content of school meals provided by the Federal school lunch program.

the filibuster has been abused more and more in recent Congresses, and it is time for the Senate to consider what to do about it.

The pervasiveness of the filibuster deployed every day for multiple purposes in this body has started to cause the Senate to descend into complete dysfunction.

We need substantial bipartisan support to update the Senate's rules, so let us put together a package.

Yesterday's failed procedural vote on Chairman Schumer's campaign finance legislation is the perfect example, in my view, of the abuse of Senate rules.

I want to thank again Senator Risch. He and I have an excellent working relationship.

If we do nothing about this epidemic... we could be right back here with another epidemic of this size and scope.