Political Quotes

“Let me thank the Senator from Oregon for his question because he raises a very important point. No one is debating whether we want our kids to have a choice. The debate here is about whether or not those schools that take taxpayer dollars through a voucher system are accountable to the taxpayers who are paying for those vouchers. This nominee came before our committee and very clearly stated that she would not equally hold accountable private schools. Now, I was a former school board member, and I can tell you, I was there late many nights listening to parents who stood before us and talked about the fact that they wanted to make sure that their school had good teachers or their school had good policies, and we were accountable to that because we were an elected board, and we had to make decisions based on what our constituents thought was important. These are our constituents who are paying their tax dollars to this country, and they want to know that their taxes are used accountably. Yet we have a nominee before us at the Department of Education who has said she wants to take those taxpayer dollars--your money--and send it on to private schools with no accountability. What does that mean? That could mean that those private schools don't necessarily have to provide a strong curriculum in specific topics. It means they can let kids out of school and say: We don't want to keep you here anymore. You are too tough to teach.…”