T. Gorton: “next week when the Senate takes up the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it will be dealing with the most…”

“next week when the Senate takes up the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it will be dealing with the most important single issue, with the most vital single goal with which it will deal during the course of this session of Congress. That debate will be about our children, about their education, and about their future. There is unanimous recognition in this body that a good education, an education for the 21st century, will help our children and our grandchildren have an economically independent future, to understand the history of their tradition and their culture, and will open to all of their lives an opportunity for lifetime learning and personal enrichment. At the same time, as citizens, we recognize that the future of our democracy depends upon an educated citizenry and that we will need more and better educated people in an ever more complicated future. This year alone, I have had an opportunity, both in person and through video conferencing, to visit dozens of schools in individual school districts in my own State, an experience I know many of my colleagues have shared.”