Joe Cunningham: “Who has been patiently standing by. I don't know of my colleagues, how many of you, it is difficult to pass a school…”

“Who has been patiently standing by. I don't know of my colleagues, how many of you, it is difficult to pass a school bond even on a local district. In California it takes like two-thirds to pass a proposition. It has been very difficult. And if we get less than 50 cents on a dollar down to the classroom, where are we going to get the money to upgrade those schools? First of all, when you ask the public, more than a majority of the public feels that the education system, even though we have good schools, the majority feels that our public education system does not even rate a C grade. If that is the case, I would ask most of the majority to expect our schools to have nothing less than an A grade in what it teaches our children. Remember a gentleman named Jaime Escalante, I mentioned his name once before? They thought he was radical when he thought he could teach children mathematics; it was calculus. And the teachers thought he was crazy. This was in a minority district, gang-infested, where the kids were low achievers, high risk. I would say that the parents thought he was crazy; the teachers thought he was crazy. He got no support from the administration, and he said I am going to teach those kids. And he set out to do that as an individual. What a difference he made. Ninety-seven percent of the kids went on to college in mathematics. Then he got the support of the teachers. He got the support of the students. He got the support of the administrators, and made a difference.”