Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, today, I want to talk about what the Hoekstra block grant amendment would do. What we are focusing on here is moving the emphasis on where decisionmaking is in education from Washington to our children. This is a step toward moving decisionmaking back to parents and moving dollars to the classroom. This is about providing flexibility at the State level. The status quo today in Washington is 760 programs, 100 billion dollars' worth of spending. What we are proposing to do is to take 28 programs and about $2.7 billion of spending and put it into a single block grant, or move it into chapter II of funding, so we give maximum flexibility to the States to do what they believe is most appropriate for the students, the children, and the parents in their State. Over the past year, year and a half, we have gone around the country taking a look at what works and what is wasted in education. What we are finding is very exciting. What is working in education is the reform and innovation that is going on at the State level. Whether we are in Cleveland, whether we are in New York City, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Louisville, there are exciting things going on in education. Education is actually turning around, and we are getting the kinds of results we would like to have.”