Political Quotes

“I rise today to call on the Bush administration and this Congress to live up to its promise on education. Despite the White House's media event this week, the administration's own budget request for next year would cut $9.4 billion from the President's own No Child Left Behind Act. In the first 3 years under this new law, this administration has shorted America's schools by $27 billion. That is a pretty poor record and a failure of leadership. This week, the White House claimed that the States have billions of dollars of unspent Federal education funds, as if there is a stack of money sitting on some bureaucrat's shelf. As the only former State school chief serving in this Congress, I can tell my colleagues that nothing could be farther from the truth. School officials are struggling to fill countless unmet needs for funding, and this administration's failure to provide our needed education funds is a crushing burden. Democrats have a better way. I have introduced legislation to require full funding for No Child Left Behind. Democrats support school construction and helping local leaders build new schools, relieve overcrowding, reduce class sizes, and improve security. We must make sure every public school works to educate our children to meet the needs of the 21st century. In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, Congress needs to live up to its promises made on education.”