John Sarbanes: “I think we need to underscore that. I want to come back to this notion that we are trying to direct where the money…”

“I think we need to underscore that. I want to come back to this notion that we are trying to direct where the money should go and somehow that is a departure from past practice or hasn't in the past, at least, had strong bipartisan support. It is clear that math and science is one of the critical areas. I earlier asked the Senator, wasn't this whole education emphasis important to the U.S. competitive role in the world economy. We can look at what other countries are doing, and we know the kind of investments they are making in math and science. We started with the Eisenhower administration, and that, I think, was at the time of Sputnik that that program was energized to try to improve the quality of math and science. We had some successes, but there has been a relapse, there has been a lapse back, and one of the programs that was cut, as I understand it from the Senator from Massachusetts, and which he is emphasizing we need to restore, is this program to improve the quality of the math and science teachers in the schools all across our country.”