Arlen Specter: “when the Senator from Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, denigrates my arguments, I have to respond. When he says, ``Let us…”

“when the Senator from Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, denigrates my arguments, I have to respond. When he says, ``Let us not fool the American people,'' I would suggest that his arguments and this amendment do precisely that, and the reason they do it is because this amendment proposes to reinstate funding to the 1995 level, makes that representation, but in fact it does not do it. It does not do it because it lasts for only 49 days, and because almost all of the expenditures in an appropriations process do not take effect until July 1. When you talk about the expectations of the educators as to what they are going to do and representations made about how many teachers will be laid off, they are not going to derive any solace from this amendment. What this amendment really is, is a grand show to say that there are many people who are arguing for it who think education ought to have a higher funding level. That is something that I agree with. And that when the Senate was allocated $1.6 billion more with my leadership and the leadership of Senator Harkin, that was all put into education. To personalize it for just a minute, I have expressed repeatedly, on this floor and off, my support for education. And on the personal level, neither of my parents had any education to speak of. My father came to this country as an immigrant, had no formal education.…”