Political Quotes

“Madam Chairwoman, I am nearly speechless with the conversation that I have just heard where we are talking about the most fundamental of things that we need, the equipment that we need to be functioning in our society, that skill of literacy, that we are thinking somehow that this is a checkbook balance situation rather than an investment in a child, an investment in a family, an investment in a future. If we are talking about the need to imagine, we have to give people the skills so that they may imagine. Imagine the life that they will be able to have when they are able to read a street sign; when they are able to read to their child; when they are able to read their driver's test. These are things that we should not deny anyone. These are fundamental things that we absolutely have to provide to every single citizen in our economy. If we are not providing education and literacy, what good is this Nation? I will conclude by saying that I came here to Congress and I stand on this floor, the daughter of a refugee from Poland. He came here with nothing as a 5 year old. He came here with no literacy skills, and a generation later, I am standing here in front of you because my father had the opportunity to learn to read. My father had the opportunity to pursue the American Dream, and 70 years later, I stand here in front of you because that is the promise that our Nation makes to all of us and the investment that our Nation makes in every one of us.…”