Joe Miller LAW ’95 came achingly close to claiming a seat in the U.S. Senate back in the 2010 elections, but fell to incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s historic write-in campaign. Last night, he swung by the Yale Political Union to explain why he doesn’t want the federal government involved in public education. Below are a few notable quotables from Miller’s showing at last night’s debate:

“Government intervention in education is unconstitutional…the words ‘education’ and ‘school’ do not appear in the constitution.”

“No Child Left Behind is a one size fits all [regime]…it really doesn’t let states try this thing.”

“We are increasingly poor as a country.”

“The government is not the caretaker of our children.”

“The history of public education under the federal government has been failure…I’m in favor of immediately removing the federal government from education.”

“They want more control, they want more influence over our children.”

“Education trains us to think logically and rationally, but you have to be able to think morally, and that is something lacking in the current education system.”