Political Quotes

“I think that, again, my amendment would provide sufficient flexibility to accommodate alternative higher- education settings. The reason we're talking about rules and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse is not somehow the government is going someplace that's unwarranted; but these are Federal student loans, these are Federal programs we're talking about. We do not want taxpayers to be ripped off, and we do not want students to be ripped off. I believe that directing the Secretary to come up with an alternative plan to the one we're stripping out would go a long way toward accomplishing that. And I agree with the gentlewoman from North Carolina. Fundamentally, many of these issues need to be discussed during the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act; and I hope that she will join me at that point, yes, on freeing up the inputs-based measurements, but equally, if not more important, making sure we hold the recipients of taxpayer- funded programs accountable for the outcomes. And there is no perfect outcome-based measurement--we know this from K 12 education as well--but even a mediocre one is better than none. And I think it will fall upon this Congress to do that.…”