Political Quotes

“I rise today to introduce the Educating Tomorrow's Workforce Act of 2014. This is a bipartisan bill with Senator Portman, who will follow me on the floor today. Senator Portman and I are working together as cochairs of the Senate Career and Technical Education Caucus. Let me first explain why career and technical education is important to me. I grew up in a household in Kansas City where my dad ran a union- organized ironworking shop. He was the owner. Ironworkers and welders-- in a good year, eight employees; in a bad year, five employees. My mother and my brothers and I worked in my dad's shop, and I came to appreciate working in that ironworking shop, the tremendous craftsmanship and skill that went into being an ironworker. That lesson has stuck with me for the rest of my life, and I really credit my dad with my work ethic. In a manufacturing welding shop, you get up and you go to work early because you want to get the work done before it gets too hot in the middle of the day. I then had the experience in 1980 to take a year off from Harvard Law School and go to Honduras, where I was the principal of the Instituto Tecnico Loyola, which was a school that taught kids to be welders and carpenters. I was able to use the trades I had learned in my dad's shop, and what I saw in Honduras was the same thing: that the acquisition of skills--whether it be welding or carpentry or other skills--is a great path to life's success.…”