Political Quotes

“my friend from North Dakota makes two arguments. One, a philosophical argument against the abolition of the Department of Education, based on the philosophy that there is a function of the Department of Education in Washington, DC. That, however, is not an argument against this amendment since this amendment does not abolish the Department. It takes only about one-third of the money that it is spending in K through 12 education. The second argument the Senator from North Dakota makes is that it is absolutely essential for the success of our educational efforts that there be very strict rules coming from the Department of Education to every school district in the United States. That would be a forceful argument if we had been a tremendous 'signal' success in these policies. Nothing indicates that we have been. It is one of the reasons we are debating education policy here today. What I proposed is an opportunity to try three experiments: Continue the present system, allow the States to do it, or allow local school districts to do it. I remain puzzled that anyone should say that we are so successful today that we can't experiment, we can't change. Let's try for a while three different systems and see which one works the best. Competition always ends up with the best results.”