As they see it.

• Position: Quotations from several politicians and civilians

"We cannot continue to spend the exact amount of time with our most disadvantaged kids as we do with our most advantaged kids and hope that those kids are somehow going to catch up or get to grade level."

--Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education to The Christian Science Monitor.

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"I've had a lot more people contact me about NFL football the last two months instead of child protective services, windstorm insurance or workers' compensation, which are frankly more important issues. I don't control what constituents call me about."

--Texas Representative Corbin Van Arsdale, to the Associated Press, about the national fight over whether cable customers should be charged extra for the football channel.

"People would like sex offenders to be the few, the perverted and the far away. The reality is that we catch the people who do it the most often or are the unluckiest. The idea that we catch most people is simply not true."

--David A. D'Amora, director of the Center for Treatment of Problem Sexual Behavior in Middletown, Conn., to The Day.

"We need to worry about global warming because that can affect our skiing and maple syrup. It might be bad for our leaves, too."

--A high school sophomore to a representative of the Vermont Council on the Future, which is reviewing where...