Michael Bennet: “it is a privilege to be here with my colleague from Colorado. I rise to talk about our schools and really to talk about…”

“it is a privilege to be here with my colleague from Colorado. I rise to talk about our schools and really to talk about our values and our morality--what we stand for as a country--and to ask whether we are able to look forward and create a better future for our children. To set the record straight, let me be clear. When it comes to our children, I have fallen short, you have fallen short, and this body has fallen short. Let me explain why. We have learned in the last couple of weeks that over half of the public school children in this country are now poor enough that they qualify for free or reduced lunches at school--children who, through no fault of their own, are reaping the whirlwind of 15 years of stagnant middle-class family income and the effects of the worst recession since the Great Depression. By many measures, as the Presiding Officer knows, Colorado's economy leads the Nation. But even in our home State, we see more children living in poverty. In fact, the number of children in poverty is growing faster in Colorado than in most of the other 50 States. As a country and as a State, we are making a lot of progress in a number of dimensions, but we are headed in the wrong direction when it comes to our kids. That is a bad sign for any country but particularly for a democracy that aspires to be the land of opportunity.…”