Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Mr. President, I think we are talking about the future of public education. I have heard people say, why not just…”

“Mr. President, I think we are talking about the future of public education. I have heard people say, why not just improve public education? That is what we are trying to do. That is the bottom line of what this amendment is trying to do--introduce some new idea, introduce a new way of trying to improve public education by having competition in our system. Mr. President, what makes America America, what makes America different from other countries in the world has always been our commitment to quality public education so that every child in our country would have the opportunity, with a full range of public education, to fulfill his or her potential. I am a product of public education. I think it is important that we have the quality so that a person like me can stand on the floor with a person like Senator Kennedy who has had quality private education. In order to do that, I think it is important that we have new ideas because, as they say in my home State, ``If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'' This is broken. The District of Columbia schools spend more money per student than any school in America, and yet steadily we have seen the decline of the quality of education as judged by the scores on tests. So more money is clearly not the answer.”