Political Quotes

“I commend my colleague from New York, Senator Moynihan, for his very erudite--as he usually is--discussion of the problems this country is having with education, and also some of the studies that have been done in the past, pointing out the serious problems that exist in regard to our young people successfully moving into the next century. I so disagree with a couple of his comments. With respect to goal 1, he thought students were now coming, ready to learn. I do not think that is what he was referring to. For we do have serious problems with many, many young people in this country, on their ability to learn. They need to be helped through Head Start, other preschool, health, and nutrition programs, including full implementation of the WIC Program. This will ensure that when they do come to school, they are fully immunized and fed, so they have an opportunity to be able to learn. Goal 2 states we should reach a 90-percent graduation rate by the year 2000. If you look at the latest statistics, the graduation rate is 88 percent. That is very misleading. First of all, there are demographic groups in our society, Hispanics and blacks, who are way below that. So certainly, when we look at that goal, we need to talk about everyone. More important is the evidence as to whether or not those who graduate are meeting those matters contained in goal 3.”