Political Quotes

“I think that it has been a slow learning process for the minority, because I think they are at the point now where they realize these programs did not work. Well intended, no question well intended, but they now begin to realize, and we hear the word flexibility mentioned now on the other side of the aisle. We hear different things mentioned that we never would have heard for years because the programs did not work. So now they are saying, hey, it looks like Texas, for instance, was very, very successful with that flexibility. What does it mean to a State? Well, first of all, before we allowed any kind of flexibility, the only purpose for the Federal auditor to go out into that school district was to see whether the money was spent on the right student. They were not sent out to see whether the students were benefiting from what is being spent. They were just sent out to see, is the money going to the right children? Obviously, it was going to the right children, but it was not helping those children. So this is the battle we go through every time, the philosophical battle of another Federal program, one-size-fits-all from Washington, D.C. will solve these problems; another $1 billion will solve these problems. It has not worked. So we have now taken a different approach.”