Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. I agree with everything he said. There is all sweetness and light. It will not be all sweetness and light when we get to these amendments. But what we are asking is on that voluntary basis, and the Senator from Kansas used the word voluntary and I would underscore it. That is what this calls for, a voluntary establishment of high academic standards. And then do something that I have heard the Senator from Rhode Island say over and over again. In fact, I have stolen this process from him. He says, ``When I speak to students, I ask them if they are being challenged enough.'' And overwhelmingly they say they are not being challenged enough. I have stolen that technique from the Senator from Rhode Island without giving him credit, I regret to say. But absolutely we ought to be doing more. Parental involvement; Senator Dodd has talked about this, Senator Hatfield has been excellent on this. The PTA has been urging us to do more. The local school councils established by the city of Chicago did not cost us a penny; gotten parents involved, and there is no question that has helped the Chicago schools. Senator Wellstone and I will be offering an amendment to strengthen the opportunity-to-learn standards. I hope we can get something worked out on that. And then I would finally urge that we recognize--this is one piece of the puzzle. This is a step forward. It is a small step forward. We need other steps forward.”