Political Quotes

“The Senator is right, we have made great strides, but I have been in elementary schools where there are no bathrooms inside the building, the roof is leaking, the floors are crumbling; they are covered up with little pieces of carpet. To get them in the lunchroom, they have to start going to lunch at 10 or 10:15 in the morning because it is so crowded, they can't get the kids through. If you go down the road a few miles, there will be a brand new, shiny mall, new store buildings. The Senator is exactly right. What does it say to our children when they go to a new mall with beautiful buildings and the next morning they get up and go to school and the building is falling down? What does it say about what we care about, what our priorities are? This is all part of the same issue we have been talking about. We need to do all these things, and they are all critically important, from Head Start, in my case Smart Start, to getting quality teachers, keeping them trained, retaining them in the school system, having kids in smaller classes so they can learn more, having them in buildings that are not falling apart, having afterschool programs and technology available to them--this is all critically important. There is nothing we do as a government that is more important than educating our young people. We have a remarkable opportunity here, and I hope we take advantage of it.”