Chuck Hagel: “As we pick up newspapers daily across this country we don't talk of great success stories for the most part about our…”

“As we pick up newspapers daily across this country we don't talk of great success stories for the most part about our American education system. We talk about failures. That will be a self-fulfilling prophecy if we allow our newspapers to be consumed with what is wrong with our public educational system without focusing on not only what is right, because there are many things right with our system, but how we fix them. How do we make American education better? It is easy to criticize. But how do we make it better? It is not just money. We know that. Quite honestly, it is more important than money. There is not a parent in this country who doesn't understand that. We need to look beyond the technicalities and the small details of the Gorton amendment, or any other amendment to the appropriations bill. We need, and we will continue, to debate a much bigger question that gets to our Nation's philosophy, our basic philosophy on education. Who should control what our children learn and what our teachers teach? The Federal Government? I don't think so. No, I don't think so. That is not the role of the Federal Government. Our Founding Fathers gave us the answer very clearly. We need to look no further than article I and amendment 10 of the U.S. Constitution, which reserve the authority for education to the States, to the people--not to the Federal Government.”