Paul Coverdell: “The data that we are receiving is striking to me, particularly in grades kindergarten through high school, about failed…”

“The data that we are receiving is striking to me, particularly in grades kindergarten through high school, about failed reading skills, last in math, last in science among the industrialized nations. America knows this. You can ask any community what is the No. 1 issue in the country today, and they will tell you we have trouble in our school systems. We are not effectively equipping all of our citizens with the ability to participate in this society. If that is allowed to continue, it will have the effect of crippling the United States in the new century. I have often said, to the extent that any citizen is denied fundamental educational skills, we have abrogated their ability to be full citizens and to enjoy the benefits of American citizenship. An uneducated people will not be a free people. By allowing so many of our students to come through the system and to have missed the mark, we are in danger of creating for the first time in America a cast system. This never existed in America.”