Political Quotes

“The second subject matter is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This morning the New York Times as well as others reported that there were serious reservations being expressed by superintendents of schools and educators across the country about this mandating of testing in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. I certainly want to see young people tested. I think it is worthwhile to know how children are doing under the elementary and secondary educational system of the country, but I am getting concerned that we are merely taking the educational temperature of these children without really dealing with the problem that has caused the public to lose faith in our public school system. Every day the numbers indicate there is greater concern about the quality of public education. I think we can do a better job. But I do not necessarily believe that just testing kids every year, and at what cost, is necessarily going to improve the quality of education. So while I am not opposed to testing, I think we ought to think more about what we can do for those children who are failing, what ideas can we come up with and work on with our local communities and States to improve the quality of teachers, the quality of classrooms, the quality of educational materials, wiring schools to take advantage of the explosion in technology and information that is available.”