Christopher J. Dodd: “I hope you might find a way to increase the level of awareness of how important these issues are.”

I think we should look at our choices. We can come down to where we allocate resources and how we make choices between the issue of tax cuts for the top 1 percent of income earners versus investing in a No Child Left Behind bill.

I think the high rate at one point in the Nixon Administration is we were spending something close to 6 percent of the Federal budget on secondary and elementary education in this country, the Federal Government was.

I do not think that was really smart to have Minnesota having fewer dots up there than Connecticut.

I think it is important today and I want to commend my colleagues on both sides here for their comments.