Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to the Durbin amendment. I do not oppose the amendment because I think kids ought to be allowed to smoke in school. Certainly kids should not smoke in school or anywhere else, and I do not think there is any Member in this chamber or anyone around this country who disagrees with that. Kids and teachers though ought to be dealing with reading, writing and arithmetic in schools. Teachers should be in the business of teaching kids how to be competitive, how to learn and how to expand their minds. This amendment may have a lot of emotional appeal. But its adoption adds yet another layer of government involvement on each school system. And if the school system does not have an education program for this or for that, or does not have this or that policy in place, then they do not get any more Federal dollars. Let us get our priorities straight. It is time to get the schools back in the business of teaching our children, not spending all of their time complying with Federal mandates.”