I have a very clear idea of what the Freedom Caucus has done to this country by terrorizing both the Republican Party and the America people.
A lot of people in America don't know me, and that's something I have to overcome.
Demagoguery is not unknown in American history.
We've done a terrible job of hiring, supporting, and retaining the people tasked with the difficult responsibility of teaching our children.
I think the worst vote I ever cast was a vote to change the rules to lower the threshold for approval of judicial nominations and executive administration nominations.
Our goal in Washington must not be to impose but to expect and assist: Expect the most of educators and students and assist them as they work together to meet those expectations. Rather than tightening our grip, we should set clear, ambitious goals and support innovative local efforts to achieve them.
I think one of the things that we are facing right now is that we've stopped listening to each other in our politics.
We are strong country with weak leadership.
Competitive programs such as Race to the Top provide incentives for communities to develop new solutions for old problems. Because of Race to the Top, states have raised their standards and committed to fixing schools that have persistently failed students.
I think the inhabitants of the past are fighting hard to keep the rents they acquired in the 20th century.
Health care is much the same - the status quo is, by all measures, failing far too many people - and we must not shrink from the challenge.
We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet. In my view we have nothing to show for it. We haven't invested in our roads, our bridges, our waste-water systems, our sewer systems. We haven't even maintained the assets that our parents and grandparents built for us.
In my mind, there is no reason public school reform should be a partisan issue.
I probably would have voted against Justice Thomas, and, and, and I've been disappointed by what Justice Roberts has done.
We've got a lot of work to do: not only on education, but on the economy, on our tax code, and on reducing our crushing debt.
We need to work with the other countries in the hemisphere so that they also have refugee policies in place so that people have a place to go and can escape the violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
I think that we have positive moments in our history and negative moments in our history. We incarcerated Japanese Americans in the state of Colorado, in Camp Amache. You could say that's part of our heritage; I would say it's a shameful part of our heritage and not something we should repeat.
Teaching is hard. It takes years to master the technically demanding work and a lot of effort to do that work well.
Study after study affirms what I saw in the classroom every day as superintendent of Denver Public Schools: Nothing makes a bigger difference for student learning than great teaching.
I think if we can get people focused to do what we need to do to keep our kids from being stuck with this debt that they didn't accrue, you might be surprised at how far we can move this conversation.
