Mark Souder: “I believe education is the responsibility of the States and local; and yet I passionately believe in the importance of…”

“I believe education is the responsibility of the States and local; and yet I passionately believe in the importance of education. I don't know how we are going to compete in the international marketplace if we don't compete on math and science, and if we don't have everybody at basic reading levels where they have an opportunity to blossom. If they don't know how to read, they will not be able to learn how to compete in a worldwide marketplace. And frankly we are not going to do it with cheap labor. We have to do it with value-added labor. We have to have education at the core of any system that we have. The challenge we have in the Federal Government is that the State and local seem to not want to raise their taxes. They don't want to do the funding. They want to come to the Federal Government for the money, and then they don't want any strings with the money. If you ask the Federal Government for money, you are going to get strings.”