Political Quotes

“taking money away from under-funded public schools and diverting it into selective private schools is fundamentally flawed. This proposed voucher program is part of a larger initiative of the Bush administration to privatize essential services whereever they can. A basic problem is that the experience of privatization shows little evidence of enhanced accountability or performance. In fact, the 10- year Government Accounting Office study of public and privately funded voucher programs found no evidence of test gains for children who participated in voucher programs. Furthermore, the public when given their choice, have repeatedly voted against vouchers and recent national polls suggest no change in that opinion. Our resources could be much better utilized to fulfill the President's promises. He and the Congressional Republican Leadership has walked away from funding No Child Left Behind leaving nearly $9 billion unfunded mandates throughout the Nation. In the District of Columbia, No Child Left Behind has left almost $50 million in unfunded mandates. It would be a tragedy to further short change public education by encouraging families to leave a system that can work and, unlike the private schools who would be favored with vouchers, our public schools take all our children no matter how needy or troubled. I support innovation in public schools. Reform and improvement will happen sooner if we focus our attention and resources on our public schools.”