Political Quotes

“Well, I want to thank the Senator from Michigan for that question because it is at the heart of what this entire debate is about. We have a nominee who has come forward who is quite successful in private business--a billionaire herself--whose idea and vision for our Nation's education comes from a private business perspective. The Senator from Michigan is absolutely right. Our schools are not about profits. They are not profit centers, and we can never run them that way because there is a core principle that this country was founded on that our forefathers very wisely thought of. They wanted to make sure that every young person in this country, no matter who they were and how much money they had, would get a public education. You can't run that as a for-profit business because there are kids who come to our schools who are very hard. Maybe they come without having had a parent home the night before, they come hungry, they come with disabilities, they come with challenging education experiences. We can't throw those kids out because there are other kids who come with parents who are very active and are really bright and we want to keep them because they are better for profit. We have to run our public education schools so every child has that opportunity because who knows who that young child is going to be who takes that nugget of public education and ends up sitting here in the U.S. Senate. That is the foundation of our country.…”