"Well, I have for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools. But not as a substitute for the public schools. But as a supplement for the public schools. And what I have, what I have worked on through my work with the Children's Defense Fund and my work on education in Arkansas and through my time as First Lady and Senator is to continue to say that charter schools can have a purpose but, you know, there are good charter schools and there are bad charter schools, just like there are good public schools and there are bad public schools. The original idea behind the charter schools, Roland [Martin, interviewer], was to learn what works and apply them in the public schools. And here's a couple of problems: most charter schools, I don't want to say every one, but most charter schools, they don't take the hardest to teach kids or, if they do, they don't keep them. And so the public schools are often in a no-win situation because they do, thankfully, take everybody and then they don't get the resources or the help and support that they need in order to take care of every child's education. So I want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system. Not outside of it but within it, because I am still a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy. And it is a path for opportunity. But I am also fully aware that there are a lot of substandard public schools. But part of the reason for that policymakers and local politicians will not fund schools in poor areas that take care of poor children to the level that they need to be."

Source: C-Span, "Hillary Clinton Town Hall Meeting in Orangeburg, South Carolina," c-span.org, Nov. 7, 2015