Tom Coburn: “I think the other point that the Education at a Crossroads made to me is not all our problems in education are going to…”

“I think the other point that the Education at a Crossroads made to me is not all our problems in education are going to be solved by money. I have a daughter who is not teaching now, she is fortunate enough to be able to be home raising her children. But what she told me was two things about education. One is, is I got to spend about a third of my time filling out paperwork for the bureaucracy. The second thing is I do not have the tools to control the discipline in my classroom. So it does not matter how much money we spend, if we do not fix those two problems where teachers can teach, then we are not going to solve the problem. It is easy to get a vote from a constituent saying I am spending a lot of money on education. It is very difficult to talk about what the real problem is, because it requires us to change. It requires all of us to participate and do something. I just wanted to make one other thing. I am into my sixth decade. I proudly have joined an organization called AARP. I did that not because they necessarily represent all my viewpoints but I wanted to be able to have input as we say this, I am interested in getting my Social Security. I am a baby boomer. I have an investment in my retirement. Since I am not going to have a retirement from Congress, I am going to want my Social Security money.”