Political Quotes

“They could face a cutoff of the existing Federal funds they are receiving. You have States that could be penalized, States that already are in trouble because of State deficits. They could be penalized by not complying with the Federal mandates that President Bush created, signed, and refused to fund. Now, let me tell you where I stand. Senator Kennedy, who is not with us today but he certainly has been our leader on this issue, has called for full funding under title 1, full funding under the IDEA program for disabled students, and those are things I support. It comes to about $7 billion, if I am not mistaken. We should come up with that money. If we can find $676 billion for tax breaks for wealthy people, can we not find $7 billion for education? It is my position--and I do not speak for anyone but myself on this-- if this Congress fails to fund the unfunded mandates of No Child Left Behind, this Senator will propose suspending those mandates, saying to those school districts across America that until we are prepared to put the money on the table, until this economy is stronger, we are not going to require you to test every student every year to make an evaluation of each of those students and go through all the requirements of No Child Left Behind. The President cannot have it both ways. He cannot call himself an education President, wrap himself in the cloak of educational reform, and then refuse to put the money on the table.”