If we increase spending, we have got to raise taxes or any combination.

It is virtually impossible to compete in today's global economy without a college degree.

We can play politics, or we can reduce crime.

Giving a 10-year mandatory minimum for a second offense fist fight is not going to reduce the chance that someone will be stabbed 16 times when you are not funding any of the programs that are desperately needed to actually reduce juvenile crime.

Unequal funding resources also results in unequal educational opportunity when you consider studies that show that one half of low income students who are qualified to attend college do not attend because they can't afford to.

Mandatory minimums have been shown to be discriminatory and waste the taxpayers' money.

In fact, the Harvard study data indicates that 70 percent of African American children attend schools that are predominately African American, about the same level as in 1968 when Dr. King died.