Political Quotes

“on this day when we honor our Nation's teachers, I would like to highlight the work of one accomplished educator in my district of Louisville, KY. Jacqueline Austin spent 13 years as a classroom teacher before being named as principal of John F. Kennedy Elementary School. In her first year as principal, Mrs. Austin would arrive early at work and phone students to wake them up and ensure that they were coming to school. She says it was the only way she knew to improve the school's attendance rate, which was near the bottom of all of Jefferson County elementary schools. Kennedy could be found at the bottom of a lot of other lists, not only in attendance but also in test scores and failure rates. In fact, more than 30 percent of John F. Kennedy's kindergartners and 23 percent of its first graders had failed a grade. Located in one of the toughest housing projects in the city, Kennedy Elementary seemed to be a lost cause. But in the tradition of outstanding educators, Mrs. Austin set about finding ways to solve her school's problems.”