Joe Cunningham: “Not specifically on this issue. You can see on education, when we had the hearings in the 104th, we had eight of them…”

“Not specifically on this issue. You can see on education, when we had the hearings in the 104th, we had eight of them, and the main concern from industry, small business, unions and major business was that children coming out of our school systems could not qualify for an entry level job because they could not read, they could not write, they did not have the math skills. They did not have the high technology or they could not speak the English language. We are last, of the 15 industrialized nations, on all core courses. That is a legacy we have been left from a liberal education system. Not only cutting it, but the money that we get there, the teachers are not paid properly. My wife has a doctorate degree in education. She has a master's in education. She has a master's in business. She is bilingual in Spanish. Her sister is in public education, special education program. So I know there are good programs and good teachers out there. But what do we want to do? Because, A, there is less than 12 percent of the classrooms have even a single phone jack to upgrade them for the 21st century. They are operating in the 1950s. And even the good skilled schools do not have the computer facilities to help the kids to learn, to get ready for jobs.”