The greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency.

The person who knows "how" will always have a job. The person who knows "why" will always be his boss.

When you succeed at keeping almost everyone in school, you must figure out ways to educate everyone you keep in school.

Most people believe that schools were good enough when they were children and that they are good enough now. But the dynamic growth of our system of education has spawned serious problems of educational quality.

The ladder was there, "from the gutter to the university," and for those stalwart enough to ascend it, the schools were a boon and a path out of poverty.