Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the students of the District of Columbia are at a unique educational disadvantage today. They are the only students in the entire continental United States who do not have access to the State college and university system that every other American family is able to avail themselves of. I am not endorsing the concept of statehood, which would be perhaps one way to achieve that objective, although we would still then have to find the resources that would be necessary to build a comparable college system; but I am endorsing the notion that we should do everything we can to establish a level playing field for those students who grow up in the District of Columbia, and this legislation will accomplish that objective. There are some extraordinarily gifted young men and women in the District of Columbia, but we will never fully realize their potential until they have access to the excellence that our college and university systems are able to provide; and by expanding their access to the colleges and universities in Virginia and Maryland particularly, they will have that kind of opportunity which is bound to benefit all of us, our economy, our society.”