Political Quotes

“I commend the Senator from North Dakota, because I think, between us, we really have struck at the linchpin of reform. One is in the report card situation, to provide an ability for every parent to know some of the basics about the school that his or her children attend, and to be able to make some judgments on their own whether that child is in the best learning environment. And what the report card could do is spur competition, I think, I say to the Senator, among students, among schools, among school districts, if they have a way to compare one to the other. When you were talking about Cannon Ball, North Dakota, I was thinking about Los Angeles, and going into a school that had 5,000 students K through sixth grade. Everything was in shifts. You can imagine the cacophony of sounds with 5,000 small children in this school. I had never seen a school this size before. As we debate social promotion, I am troubled by the size of some schools. I have read the views of educational experts and what they said about the size of the school. I read they advised that elementary schools be no bigger than 350 students to have that teacher-student quality relationship; middle schools, 750 students; and high schools maybe a maximum of 1,200 students. Because of the lack of money and the inability to do some of these things, schools just diminish their quality.…”