James M. Talent: “I think it is a shame. I think it is sad that so many people inside this House and outside this House have been fighting…”

“I think it is a shame. I think it is sad that so many people inside this House and outside this House have been fighting to the last ditch on behalf of the system that has trapped thousands and thousands of poor parents and their children in schools where they are not safe, where they do not learn, and where none of us would send our own children: The D.C. public schools. Now, we have had discussions, on this side of the aisle anyway, about the problems these schools are having. One of my colleagues said it needs some improvement. Well, that is correct. Seventy-eight percent of the 4th graders in the D.C. Public School System cannot read up to the national average. What will happen to those kids, Mr. Chairman? Do my colleagues know what happens to children if by the 4th grade they cannot read? This is a system that closed down the schools for 3 weeks at the beginning of the year without any notice to the parents, closed down all the schools because the roofs were falling in.”