Political Quotes

“As the Senator well knows, there is nothing we do that is more important. These things all go together. I have been in these Head Start centers; I have been in these Smart Start centers; I see the effect they have on these kids' lives. It is absolutely amazing. You get children ready. Every study that has ever been done has shown the early years are the critical years. Once you get kids ready nationally with Head Start, Smart Start in North Carolina, then when they are in school, they need to be with quality teachers, well trained, well paid, treated as the extraordinary professionals and heroes they are. And not only that, they are in classes that are small in size so they don't have too many kids in the classrooms, particularly in those early years. It is absolutely crucial. I say to the Senator, I hope as we go forward with this debate we recognize, while we strongly support real accountability, tough measurement, identification of schools that are low performing, going into those schools and turning them around, that there are other components to this process that are critical to making them work: Early childhood education, quality teachers, the kids going to school in decent buildings and classrooms, not sitting on top of each other in classrooms, afterschool programs so the kids have a place to go where they can be safe and off the street; that is what this is about.…”