Max Baucus: “That is a promise we made. We should live up to our promise. No. 2, we are coming nowhere near living up to our promise.…”

“That is a promise we made. We should live up to our promise. No. 2, we are coming nowhere near living up to our promise. No. 3, costs are going up dramatically in all our States for special education, and we are not helping address that. And No. 4 is the tremendous importance of education in this country. We are competing worldwide with elementary and high school students in Pusan, Korea, in Czechoslovakia, high schools and elementary schools all around the world. Education is going to be the key to America's economic success in the future. It is going to have to be education. It cannot be anything else. We need to educate our kids. We ought to set priorities for educating our kids rather than spending money elsewhere. We have a lot of programs on which I do not think money should be spent. I think most Americans think our priorities are a little askew and that we should spend more on education, helping our kids, than we are thus far.”