Pete Domenici: “I rise today to speak about education. Since we are going to seriously consider education reform in this Chamber during…”

“I rise today to speak about education. Since we are going to seriously consider education reform in this Chamber during the ensuing days, I thought it might be appropriate for me to talk about it before I, and many others, offer amendments. New Mexicans and Americans agree, from everything I can tell, that improving the educational opportunities available to our children should be our top priority. The issue is whether or not we can reform the school system such that our children will perform better as they are educated in our public school systems in ensuing years. There is ample evidence that it is absolutely imperative the public school systems do better, that more and more of our schools be held accountable, and that an accountability requirement be part of the reform measures the Senate will be considering in the next few days or weeks. For starters, going back to the days of our origin, I quote a very distinguished American who talked about investing resources. Benjamin Franklin said: An investment in knowledge always pays the highest interest. Obviously, that is a very simple way of talking about our priorities and where we put our resources and where we might expect the best benefits for society. This great American in our founding days said: You will always get the best interest when you invest in knowledge.”