Frank Pallone: “What I see the Republican leadership trying to do is to sort of give the impression that the public school system has…”

“What I see the Republican leadership trying to do is to sort of give the impression that the public school system has failed and we need to look for alternatives now. And that is not what I am getting from my constituents. They believe that the public school system is generally doing OK. It needs improvement, but they do not want to sacrifice it at the expense of or in order to fund a voucher program that primarily sends resources to private schools. They have a sense of community. They like their public school. They want to see it improved. So let us not just throw it to the wind and say, look, it cannot be repaired. The bottom line is that if we spend some money and spend some Federal dollars the way the Democrats and the way the gentleman's task force has proposed on emphasizing academic excellence, better training of teachers, and there are a whole slew of things, we have not even talked about the safe and well-equipped schools as well, if we spend money on those things and we improve the public schools, then I think that is money well spent.”