Political Quotes

“I rise this evening to join the chorus of those who want to discuss education. It is interesting, we have had a lot of discussion from the White House, we have had a lot of criticism from Democrats about the process that we are going through on education. Is it political rhetoric? Is it a serious commitment to helping our local schools across America? That is the question I want to ask, Mr. Speaker. We have those who want to start school construction programs in the Federal Government. First, I would like to state that Federal money is not simple to use. I come from a rural part of Pennsylvania, where many school districts obtain very few Federal dollars because they need consultants, they need people who understand the Federal programs, and they have to work for months and sometimes years to get into the system and figure out the language the bureaucrats in their State capital want and the bureaucrats in Washington demand. So most small rural school districts do not receive much Federal money because they do not have consultants, they do not have grantsmen, they do not have the people that speak the right language that bureaucrats understand. Now we are going to Federalize school construction. We have 15,600 schools across America, approximately. The school construction program proposed by the President will take half the money and will give it to 100 urban poor schools. That leaves 15,500 some school districts with no funding.”