Political Quotes

“This may be the single most important bill we pass. Most of us realize if there is one thing in America that gives you a chance to succeed, it is education. We can't guarantee to our children that they will be successful or wealthy or happy in life, but we can give them a chance. The best chance we can give them is to let them go to school and progress along and go to the best schools they can attend. I happen to be standing here today because 50 years ago, somebody in the United States House of Representatives decided that because the Russians had launched Sputnik and frightened us with the prospect of losing the war in space, we needed to give more young kids a chance to go to college. So college, which had been kind of an elite opportunity for the wealthy and the sons and daughters of those who graduated from colleges in the past, was now expanded and democratized. In the 1960s, kids, such as myself, from east St. Louis, IL, had a chance to go to great universities such as the one in town that I went to named Georgetown. I didn't have any money. I borrowed it from the National Defense Education Act. What a deal. Pay it back over 10 years after you graduate, and at a 3-percent interest rate. It worked. I got my college degree and my law degree. I paid back my loans, and the money was there for the next generation. Now what has happened to the cost of college education? It has gone through the roof.”