Albert Russell Wynn: “time and time again, Americans have said that they want Congress to deal with the real issues, the issues that affect…”

“time and time again, Americans have said that they want Congress to deal with the real issues, the issues that affect their daily lives and that affect the future of their young people. Education is such an issue. We are here this weekend debating, and some say fighting, over the question of education and America's future. We on the Democratic side have a clear proposition. We believe that we need to invest more money in public education. As my colleagues know, recently we got a wake-up call of sorts. In a battery of international tests, American students lagged behind their foreign counterparts. Moreover, as we talk about the global economy and the 21st century, what we realize is that we need more technical training for our students in order to compete in the global economy. That is why education has become the issue of the day. That is why the debate rages. What I would like to do is talk about the two perspectives and two approaches to solving the problem of education in this country. On the Republican side they have advocated basically two things: One, a voucher program. They want to use the District of Columbia as a laboratory in which to take money out of public schools, put it in private schools and say this new competition from the private school sector will create better schools. That is clearly erroneous because they do not put enough money into a voucher program to make it work.”