Craig Benson Quotes

When I was mayor of New York, my views changed. I began as mayor of New York City thinking that I could reform the New York City school system. After two or three years, four years, I became an advocate of choice, of scholarships, and vouchers, and parental choice, because I thought that was the only way to really change the school system.

Arizona is a national leader in school choice with both charter schools and tuition tax credits giving parents and their children more school choices than ever before.

There has been a growing consensus across the country - from statehouses to the White House and the halls of Congress - that we need to take dramatic steps to improve our secondary schools.

In my mind, there is no reason public school reform should be a partisan issue.

One of my main legislative efforts in education is to help expand and replicate successful charter schools. Charter schools are public schools with site-based governance.

We have to fix the education system.

Charter schools in particular have proven a lifeline for millions of children stuck in chronically failing schools.

An early attempt at education choice was charter schools. These were meant to attract the best and brightest students and provide them a level of education they often could not find in their local school districts. The problem is that, of the thousands of charter schools, many are outright failures.

I think charter schools, choice, and frankly school standards need a champion.

I believe public education is the new civil rights battle and I support charter schools.

As the son of a union activist and a lifelong Democrat, I've always thought that privatizing our public schools is not the answer. We must strengthen public schools.

Hillary Clinton wants to leave behind No Child Left Behind.

I'm clear that we do need to improve what's happening in our schools.

At the federal level, we must help, not hinder, local school boards, parents, teachers and administrators as they make decisions about educating our children.

We must revamp K-12 education law to ensure Washington does not stand in the way of meaningful reforms.

Instead of just giving lip service to improving our schools, I will actually put the kids first and the teachers union behind in giving our kids better teachers, better options and better choices for a better future.

When people lose faith in a system as they have in the public school system, they no longer want to support it.

For many years we have spent a great deal of effort and money on school reform. Yet where are we today?

We all have a stake in ensuring that all students have the schools they deserve and that communities are leading this effort, not being left behind. To do that, we must challenge unchecked charter expansion and the forces driving it.

We should have better schools.

In 'The Founders,' his new book about top charter schools, Richard Whitmire traces both the 'revolution' these schools brought about in many American cities as well as a parallel phenomenon, 'the charter pushback campaigns.'

I have long been an advocate of school choice, but I also believe the problem lies with school administrators and union leaders who refuse to believe there is such a thing as a bad school.

We need better public education and more realistic education.

As a former public high school teacher, I will support whatever is in the best interest of Texas education only after careful evaluation of the Permanent School Fund.

The role of the federal government, if any, is to create more school choice.