James M. Talent: “I want to read a quote from Jonathan Rauch, who was writing in the November 10th New Republic. I think it is applicable…”

“I want to read a quote from Jonathan Rauch, who was writing in the November 10th New Republic. I think it is applicable to the debate today. ``It's hard to get excited about improving rich suburban high schools that act as feeders for Ivy League colleges. However, for poor children trapped in execrable schools, the case is moral rather than merely educational. These kids attend schools which cannot protect their physical safety, much less teach them. To require poor people to go to dangerous, dysfunctional schools that better-off people fled years ago, and that better-off people would never tolerate for their own children--all the while intoning pieties about `saving' public education--is worse than unsound public policy. It is repugnant public policy.''”