Zoe Lofgren: “I read that the majority leader made this statement on Sunday: Maybe we ought to take another look at the amount of…”

“I read that the majority leader made this statement on Sunday: Maybe we ought to take another look at the amount of money we are spending on education. And I thought, finally, good--we do need to take a look at the amount of money we are spending on education. I saw today in the Washington Post that in Korea kids get out of school at 10 p.m., and they go to school 6 days a week. Is it any wonder that they are leaving us in the dust? They have gone from Third World to major competitor in a few short years because they are putting money into education. But I learned, in fact, that the majority leader's proposal is to cut education funding to pay for a proposal to cut the gas tax. This is not the direction we should be heading. Where I come from, families are indeed struggling to pay for very high gas bills; they are commuters. But the thing they know more than anything else is that, if we want to get ahead as a country, it is important to take the long view and make sure that our kids are the best educated in the world.”