Burgess Owens: “That was an experience of talking with constituents who displayed in their commonsense reasoning far greater wisdom than…”

“That was an experience of talking with constituents who displayed in their commonsense reasoning far greater wisdom than is often displayed here in this institution. This body seems to have lost touch with common sense. Common sense of the people says clearly that education is a No. 1 priority. They have been telling us this in many ways for the last 5 years. For the last 5 years, education as a spending priority has ranked in the top five priorities as designated by the American people in public opinion polls. They clearly have shown that education is very important. Seventy-two percent of the people recently interviewed said that if there are going to be cuts made in the Federal Government, then the cuts should not be in education. Education should not be one of the areas where you streamline or downsize. They clearly stated that this was not desirable. We have common sense repeating over and over again what ought to be clear to everybody that is in a decisionmaking position in Government. We have a crisis.”