Political Quotes

“I rise today in support of the rule and in opposition to the Obey amendment. Funding for teachers and for education is my top priority here as a Member of Congress. I am a cosponsor of a bill to provide $23 billion in funding for teachers. {time} 1815 It breaks my heart that we're only talking about $10 billion today. But what is critical to achieve success--to find $10 billion, to find $23 billion--is keeping those who advocate resources on the same page as those who advocate reform. Resources and reform. That is the promise of the Obama administration. That is the platform that I ran on. That is what will transform millions of American lives to help break the vicious cycle of poverty that holds too many families as slaves and replace it with the virtuous cycle of opportunity and hope. Programs like Race to the Top, programs like funding innovative new charter schools, programs like innovative ways to fund teacher salaries. These are the programs that are being cut by this proposed amendment. I hope that the Secretary continues to work with us here in Congress to find ways to pay for teachers' salaries, but we need to do so in a way that doesn't have the threat of a Presidential veto and can garner strong support in this body. Funding teacher salaries is my top priority, and I would vote for anything to do that. I don't feel that going after the reform aspects of the President's education budget is a constructive way to build a majority to be able to fund teacher salaries.…”