Political Quotes

“I think the Senator has hit an important point when we talk about the future of education and teachers. That chart tells an interesting story. In Illinois, when I went to one of the universities that graduates more teachers than other schools, I said: What are we going to do about the shortage of teachers which we are facing in America? How are we going to find more teachers? They said: Certainly we need more teachers, and good teachers, but our biggest problem is retaining teachers. Teachers who are educated, who graduate with student loans and the burdens that they face, start teaching in a classroom and after 2 or 3 years get discouraged, leave the classroom and go into the private sector. They said that we have to find a way to retain good teachers. That is also an important element. What the Senator pointed out here is that if the Bush administration will not continue its funding level for teachers, there is going to be unpredictability, unreliability for the teacher in the future. My State is facing budget problems. Most are. They are going to be cutting back on education. So the double hit from both State funding and the Bush administration's refusal to fund its own education bill is going to jeopardize the number of teachers who are going to be available. I think that is going to create problems far beyond next year.”