Jim Nussle: “First of all, let me answer some of the critics who have been saying that public education is not something that we…”

“First of all, let me answer some of the critics who have been saying that public education is not something that we support. Not only am I a product of public education, which Members can draw their own conclusions about, the good or the bad about public education just from me standing here. I happen to think it was pretty good, my kids are in public education. I support public education. In fact, I just spent this last week of our recess going around talking to parents, talking to teachers, talking to students and administrators about the importance of public education. But they also know that there is extra, that education now between K through 12 is not enough. We did something in the balanced budget plan called the HOPE scholarship. It is a start. What we want to do is we want to expand that, because we know particularly for people who have children with special needs that there is always extra.”