According to a study by Achieve Incorporated, Texas is the first state to make a college-prep curriculum the standard coursework in high school, starting with this year's ninth grade class.
Rick Perry

America needs jobs, smaller government, less spending and a president with the courage to offer more than yet another speech.
Rick Perry

America's greatness is not found in the size of its government. America's greatness resides in the hearts and the minds of the people.
Rick Perry

Americans want government that is leaner, more efficient, and less intrusive into their personal lives.
Rick Perry

And I think most people in this country want to see a president that's got the courage to say we're going to cut the tax burden, and reduce the regulatory climate, and we're going to get Americans working.
Rick Perry

As Americans, we don't see the role of government as guaranteeing outcomes, but allowing free men and women to flourish based on their own vision, their hard work and their personal responsibility.
Rick Perry

As Americans, we realize that there is no taxpayer money that wasn't first earned through the sweat and toil of one of our citizens.
Rick Perry

But if you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart. We need to be educating these children, because they will become a drag on our society.
Rick Perry

But it wasn't until I graduated from Texas A & M University and joined the United States Air Force, flying C-130's all around the globe, that I truly appreciated the blessings of freedom.
Rick Perry

But of course, now we're told we're in recovery but this sure doesn't feel like a recovery to more than 9 percent of the Americans out there who are unemployed, or the 16 percent of the African-Americans, 11 percent of Hispanics in the same position, or the millions who can only find part-time work or those who have even stopped looking for a job.
Rick Perry


Conservatives are winning offices, and champions of big government are cleaning out their desks right now.
Rick Perry

Crucial to understanding federalism in modern day America is the concept of mobility, or 'the ability to vote with your feet.' If you don't support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol - don't come to Texas. If you don't like medicinal marijuana and gay marriage, don't move to California.
Rick Perry

Dark economic clouds are dissipating into an emerging blue sky of opportunity.
Rick Perry

Democracy functions best when we have an active citizenry.
Rick Perry

Every life is precious.
Rick Perry

I am also the product of a place called Paint Creek. Doesn't have a zip code. It's too small to be called a town along the rolling plains of Texas. We grew dryland cotton and wheat, and when I wasn't farming or attending Paint Creek Rural School, I was generally over at Troop 48 working on my Eagle Scout award.
Rick Perry

I didn't say I was running, did I?
Rick Perry

I disagree with the concept that somehow or another we're going to pack up 10, to 12, to 15 million people and ship them back to the country of origin. That's not going to happen.
Rick Perry

I don't think Obama understands basic economics. Not economics that work. He may understand some theory that someone in Princeton sat and dreamed up, but it's not working.
Rick Perry

I don't want to look like Connecticut, no offense, I don't want to look like Oklahoma, I don't want to look like California. I want to be uniquely Texas. And that's not to diss anybody else.
Rick Perry