23 Quotes by Wayne Blanton

Whether you agree or disagree with his policies, he has provided a lot of emphasis on public schools. Engaging the public in the school debate ... creates a better atmosphere.

Overall, it's going to be an excellent year.

Overall, it's a very good budget. It's a 6 percent to 7 percent increase. Considering what other states are doing, it's substantial.

Overall, it's a very good budget, especially looking at his proposal for teacher recruitment and retention.

Our position is that statewide, the school board has a budget and allocates money to all schools in their district. We don't want legislation, the courts or anyone else telling us where to spend portions of (the districts') budgets.

We'd rather use that money for teacher salaries and bonuses, but philosophically I know where that's going.

We can't keep up. We're four and a half billion dollars short on the construction side. If that's what you have to trade for five more students, then that's maybe what it takes to trade.

We have tremendous concerns in three areas: transportation, because of rising fuel costs; utilities, because of rising fuel costs; and increases in health care costs. We could have given teachers a 7 percent pay raise instead of taking those things away. We could have hired more of those teachers at a higher salary.

We'll face a critical shortage in the next couple of years if we don't do anything. We thought housing prices would have cooled by now, but they haven't. And that's bad news.