Valerie Jarrett Quotes

Spending a few hundred million dollars more a year on evaluations could save tens of billions of dollars by teaching us which programs work and generating lessons to improve programs that don’t

In a global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive peripheral European institutions? Can we justify a commission that gets ever larger? Can we carry on with an organisation that has a multibillion pound budget but not enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven't worked?

The long and short of it is, we need more rigor in all kinds of programs.

Every effort needs to be made to try and offset the costs of Katrina and Rita by reductions in other government programs, especially those that are wasteful, duplicative and ineffective.

You know, in a workplace, when you shrink the size of a workforce, there is pain there. But there is no question: we have a government that we can no longer afford. That is the cold, hard fact. So we have to make this more efficient. We have to sunset programs that no longer work. We have to eliminate waste and fraud. We must do this.

Generally speaking, government programs have the reverse result from the goal.

When government programs fail, it is often because public officials are clueless about how human beings think and act.

When government programs aren't working, those on the Left tend to support more funding, while those on the Right want to scrap them altogether. It is better to ask whether the problem is complexity and poor design. We can solve those problems - sometimes without spending a penny.

A program can be considered a success even if it is low-rated.

I want to take a close look at the SBA to see what works, what doesn't, what is duplicative, and what isn't even being utilized. We'll focus on what they do well and strengthen those areas.

We're thinking of creating a board of experts across the sectors of industry, to identify successful programs and to make recommendations about programs that are working and aren't working.

Too many policies, programs and institutions are judged by what they are supposed to do, rather than by what they actually do and the consequences of their actions.

Organizations should try to find out if their learning programs actually work.

My professional background consisted of evaluating specific programs the government was sponsoring in education or social services or, when I was in Thailand, rural development.

You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree's fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down - bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.

When I talk about a successful program, define that. It's not just winning the national championship every year because nobody can do that.

Let's talk about after-school programs generally. They're supposed to be educational programs, right? And that's what they're supposed to do; they're supposed to help kids who can't - who don't get fed at home, get fed so that they do better at school. Guess what? There's no demonstrable evidence they're actually doing that.

Far too many government spending programs have gone years, even decades, without being reauthorized, leaving the American people less able to effectively review, rethink, and possibly eliminate government programs.

In cutting government, we cut a huge variety of programs, a lot of which I would have liked to see increase, and a lot of which I'd like to see decreased more.

We can't spend money on programs just because they sound good... Meals on Wheels sounds great.

I have been in this business for over 30 years. I've seen a lot of development programmes. They don't all run smoothly.

We need a conservative welfare reform initiative that is focused on putting people back to work and ensures taxpayer money is only spent on programs that have been proven to work.

I have no preconceived notions of what SBA programs work or not.

This is a government program run amok, and we owe it to the taxpayers to find out exactly what happened before Eagle-Net wastes any more money.

It's not enough just to put great television shows out anymore.