Adam Byrd: “I suggest that the biggest threat to the public schools of this country is the fact that more and more there is less and…”

“I suggest that the biggest threat to the public schools of this country is the fact that more and more there is less and less discipline in those schools. Anything goes. The halls are filled with thugs in many schools, carrying guns and knives. I have voted, I guess, for every bill that has come along in this Senate in the nearly 36 years that I have been a Member of the Senate, for every bill supporting public education. I have been constant in my support for public education, and I am still very supportive of public education. It will be a catastrophe in this country if the public school systems ultimately fail. But I am becoming frustrated, and I think I reflect the frustrations of millions of citizens in this country, millions of students, and thousands upon thousands of teachers. How can a teacher teach in an environment where the teacher is threatened, feels threatened, and is many times the subject of abuse and the object of assault and battery? How can students learn in such an atmosphere? So I say the biggest dangers to the public school system today are the problems that are associated with it concerning lack of discipline, the failure to teach, the failure to educate, and the failure to learn.”