Political Quotes

“The Senator mentioned the problem we have of the Defense Department running schools which ought to be run by local school districts. It goes even beyond that. Just in the past couple of years we have absorbed into the defense budget a capital maintenance--new capital building and replacement of schools that are managed by the local district. Several hundred million dollars just in the past couple of years, and obligated for the next several years, will be used to rebuild or refurbish or to maintain schools which are the responsibility of local districts. What has happened is people say the local districts may not be able to afford it or the Department of Education doesn't have jurisdiction. There is a defense budget we can put it in. We have seen that in other areas as well. So the Department of Defense is assuming responsibilities it just shouldn't have. When it does, typically the costs are much greater as well. So I take the Senator's point and just say it is worse than we know because we have added new responsibilities and new budget items just in the past couple of years.”