Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to close. I think this has been a good discussion, and I think that the hearing that we had today was even an opening as well at looking at this issue. I think no matter what side of the aisle one was on, you couldn't necessarily distinguish the witnesses because it was important that we say that there is a smart way to do this and, frankly, there is kind of a stupid way to do it. Because we want to be sure that the consequences of our actions are not ones that would be impacting our children down the road. So we have to go about this in a measured way, in a smart way. I actually believe that we all have the capacity to do that. There is no question in my mind that we can't do that in a way that really asks the right questions: Why are those protections there? Why did they establish those regulations and protections? So that we can track and understand what is behind them. I really do remember that, as a school board member, now and then, there was some frustration over something within the special education arena. But when you went back and you looked at why that came about, it was because there was a child who represented a problem in the system because we didn't do the right thing. We realized that it wasn't just that child, but it was many children who could be affected in the same way. That is what we have to look at: Why are they there? How can we change them?…”