Political Quotes

“I rise in strong, strong support of this legislation and this conference report. In fact, I cannot even begin to say how strongly I support this legislation. To my mind, the enactment of this legislation may well prove to be the most important act of the Congress in this decade. Everywhere I go and every issue I see and every challenge I confront, I see the compelling need for this Goals 2000 legislation: Crime, drugs, disease, unemployment, racial hatred, intolerance of all kinds, the unwillingness, the reluctance, of so many to accept responsibility for their own lives and their own actions, much less for the faith of our democracy. These challenges, these concerns, these problems, have may causes. But in each of them, I see a single common cause. That common cause is ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance is the enemy. Education is the answer. Mr. Speaker, the pathway toward quality education for every American is to be found in the goals established in this legislation. These are broad bipartisan goals. They are voluntary goals. They will not be imposed upon our people, but our people will embrace them, because they understand these are goals that we do share. That is why President Bush was for them. That is why President Clinton and all the governors at that time endorsed them. That is why we have endorsed them.”