Political Quotes

“I have noted this on the Senate floor before, but it struck me that at the turn of the last century one of the most amazing things that happened in America was that between the years 1890 and 1920 we built in America on average one new high school every day. We started our new century with a dedication to public education. We Democratized education unlike any country in the world. And we said, whether you are rich or poor, you are going to have a chance to go to high school. That wasn't a Federal mandate. That sprung up from local communities that said, if we are going to build a community in Washington or Illinois, and it is going to be a real community, we are going to have a real high school, we are going to hire teachers, and we will have all the kids go to school. Look at the benefits we have reaped as a nation because of that kind of forward thinking, that kind of vision that said in 20th century America will be different, our commitment to education will be different. And look what we have seen as a result of it. We have gone from the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk to a space program; we have gone from Henry Ford's tin lizys moving across that assembly line to the point where we have the most modern computer chip factories in the world here in the United States.”