Political Quotes

“If I may reclaim my time, I concur, from watching the study and what has been done, that we, while doing well at the fourth grade level in the TIMSS international studies, by the eighth grade we are losing children. We need to be toughening curriculum and we need to focus on accountability. Many times comparisons that are done are not fair and accurate given the value we have on public education. Two further comments. First, saying resources should not be coupled with accountability and don't make a difference is to ignore what has happened today for our children in schools. It is not about the dollars. It is about lowering the class size. I have a friend in Grand Rapids, MI, who teaches high-risk students and last year had over 30 students; this year, 15. Surprise, the children went from F's and D's to A's and B's. That is because there was more time for the teacher to teach and the children to learn. It is not about money; it is about children learning and teachers being able to teach smaller classes. As an example, that same school has books that have situations that don't exist anymore, countries that don't exist anymore, discussions about NASA from years ago. They need to be updated.”