Political Quotes

“why all the political rhetoric on education this past week? And to make sure everybody understands, the people back home understand, that is exactly what it is, political rhetoric. But why all this political rhetoric in the last week about education? Well, I think there are probably four reasons. First of all, it is a diversionary tactic. I think no one would deny that. I suppose I can understand it, except it bothers me that children are used in this diversionary tactic. Secondly, I imagine it has something to do with polls. All the polls say education is a sexy topic. But you want to be careful. Yes, every parent, every grandparent, wants their child to have a quality education. But when you look at those polls and they ask the question, who do you trust least to reform public education at the elementary-secondary level, the answer is almost unanimously the Federal Government. Who do you distrust second, the state government. And who do you most trust, it is local government, parents, school boards, administrators, teachers on the local level. I guess the third reason would be this administration seems to like to micro-manage elementary-secondary education from Washington, D.C., the old top-down method, which, of course, has proved totally unsuccessful. I guess the last reason is pride of authorship. Every President I have served with seems to want to be remembered as the education President.”