Political Quotes

“the opponents of this choice amendment vehemently oppose five demonstration projects, and instead they want a lot of new Federal programs and money for careful education reform. There is just one little flaw in that approach, and that flaw is that we have been passing new Federal education programs for careful education reform over the last 35 years. We have been tinkering with the public education system over the last 35 years. We have been increasing money at the Federal and State and local level over the last 35 years, and student achievement has been declining over those same last 35 years. There are some other constants in those 35 years. American public education remains an enormous monopoly. It used to be the second biggest monopoly on earth after the Soviet state. Now it is the biggest monopoly. What is another constant? That parents, poor parents, have no choice about where to send their kids to school. Mr. Chairman, after 35 years of failure, why do we not simply try something fundamentally new, in a careful, pilot-demonstration-project sort of way? The gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) asked for an amendment for increased parental involvement. This is it. What better way to get increased parental involvement than, once and for all, to empower parents over the system, the education bureaucracy? This is empowering parents. So let us try something new and try to turn that declining student achievement around.”