Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, more than 60 years ago, in Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court talked about the value of education when it said that, these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity where the State has undertaken to provide it is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. The fact is that equal educational opportunities were not and still are not always available in low-income areas, basically, for two reasons. First, we fund education through the real estate tax, virtually guaranteeing that wealthy areas will have more resources; and just with the give and take in politics, you know that low-income areas will generally get the short end of the stick. In 1965, we enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to recognize the disparities in funding. It addresses ``the special educational needs of children of low-income families and the impact that concentrations of low-income families have on the ability of local educational agencies to support adequate educational programs.'' While public education would remain fundamentally a local issue through ESEA, the government recognized that, without Federal oversight and support, districts would not address these inequities.…”