We need to be having a conversation on all that is needed to gain and retain highly qualified teachers in all fields for a totally rounded education system, not pieces here and there. For example, the governor wants to give every teacher a laptop computer, and that is a lovely sentiment if every teacher was being paid at or above the national average.

They are overwhelmed by the mandates . . . the paperwork and a litany of meetings. They don't have enough time to get everything done.

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself

If anything is naive and lightweight, it's the traditional political conversation.

He strains his conversation through a cigar.

I did not have that conversation when I visited with him, ... But I had a conversation with the White House today about this subject -- and I'm not at liberty to divulge who the person is -- but I was assured by somebody who was in the room during visits with other senators that he considers one man, one vote a bedrock of our system. I was told he discussed it with Senator Kennedy.