Public Education Quotes - Page 6

• I look back and see the kids who made it through school - it made a huge difference in their lives, which made me believe in the power of public education and what it can do for individuals and communities and the state.

  Denise Juneau

  Believe, School, Kids

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• The instruction furnished is not good enough for the youth of such a country ... There is not even any systematic instruction given on political morals: an enormous deficiency in a republic.

  Harriet Martineau

  Education, Country, Political

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.269

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• After the privatization of public education everyone will get to choose a school that reflects only your own social values. No need for the competition of ideas or critical thinking. So the curriculum will be up to the school to determine. I am certain that the growing percentage of us who have McJobs will welcome this opportunity to spend a large portion of our income on education and choose an ideology at the same time.

  David A. Strauss

  School, Opportunity, Thinking

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• I think that one thing that people are missing is that we are never going to be able to fix this country's [American] economy in the long run until we fix our public education system.

  Michelle Rhee

  Running, Country, Thinking

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• The path to a better future goes directly through our public schools. I have nothing against private schools, parochial schools and home schooling, and I think that parents with the means and inclination should choose whatever they believe is best for their children. But those choices cannot compete, and cannot come at the expense of what has been -- and what must always be -- the great equalizer in our society, a free and equal public education.

  Howard Dean

  Children, Believe, Home

  Howard Dean's speech on the Future of the Democratic Party at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., www.c-span.org. December 8, 2004.

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• Bombay is far ahead of Bengal in the matter of female education. I have visited some of the best schools in Bengal and Bombay, and I can say from my own experience that there are a larger number of girls receiving public education in Bombay than in Bengal; but while Bengal has not come up to Bombay as far as regarded extent of education, Bengal is not behind Bombay in the matter of solidarity and depth.

  Keshub Chandra Sen

  Girl, School, Numbers

  Speech delivered at the East India Association, London, May 13, 1870.

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• We all know that great leaders can create great successes...success for the Chicago public education fund is to bring great leaders into Chicago's public schools.

  Kenneth C. Griffin

  School, Leader, Chicago

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• In ancient times there was no public education, except that of the forum, the theater, and the street, and the general degree of illiteracy was very high. The early men of science were left very much to themselves and such a phrase as "the scientific culture of Alexandria in the third century B.C." does not cover any reality. In a sense, this is still true today; the real pioneers are so far ahead of the crowd (even a very literate crowd) that they remain almost alone.

  George Sarton

  Real, Men, Degrees

  "A History of Science". Book by George Sarton. Volume 2: "Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C.", Preface, 1959.

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• If you want to know how to solve society's problems, you start out with better public education.

  Michael Bloomberg

  Want, Problem, Solve

  Interview with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. April 25, 2011.

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• Choosing education is a very good decision, not only good for the student, but also for our country. The United States was the first nation in history to recognize that public education for every citizen, regardless of class or station, was vital to its future . . .

  Mitt Romney

  Country, Class, Decision

  Mitt Romney (2010). “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness”, p.196, Macmillan

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• The Republicans, with their crazed Reagan fixation, are a last-gasp party, living posthumously, fighting battles on sex, race, immigration and public education long ago won by the other side. They're trying to roll back the clock, but time is passing them by.

  Maureen Dowd

  Sex, Party, Fighting

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• The terrible state of public education has paid huge dividends in ignorance. Huge. We now have a country that can be told blatant lies - easily checkable, blatant lies - and I'm not talking about the covert workings of the CIA. When we have a terrorist attack, on September 11, 2001 with 19 men - 15 of them are Saudis - and five minutes later the whole country thinks they're from Iraq - how can you have faith in the public? This is an easily checkable fact. The whole country is like the O.J. Simpson jurors.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Country, Lying, Ignorance

  "Ruminator" Magazine, August/September 2005.

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• I believe that prayer in public schools should be voluntary. It is difficult for me to see how religious exercises can be a requirement in public schools, given our Constitutional requirement of separation of church and state. I feel that the highly desirable goal of religious education must be principally the responsibility of church and home. I do not believe that public education should show any hostility toward religion, and neither should it inhibit voluntary participation, if it does not interfere with the educational process.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Religious, Prayer, Educational

  Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford (1979). “The Presidential Campaign 1976: President Gerald R. Ford. 2. v”

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• Evolution is not controversial in the field of science. It's controversial in the public sphere because public education is highly politicized.

  Eugenie Scott

  Fields, Spheres, Evolution

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• Our public education system does a great job. I don't think it's broken. We aren't interested in doing reform for reform's sake. I believe in public education; it did a great job for me. It deserves our support and encouragement.

  Denise Juneau

  Encouragement, Jobs, Believe

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• While the romanticized ideal of universal public education resonates with the cognoscenti who oppose vouchers, poor urban families just want the best education for their children, who will certainly need it to function in our high-tech and advanced society.

  Clarence Thomas

  Children, Needs, Politics

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• Courts should always do the right thing. But if winning were as simple as making a good argument and filing a good brief, then we would have won the freedom to marry 40 years ago. We must put the legal work next to the public education work next to the legislative work next to the organizing work, and that's what's brought us so far.

  Evan Wolfson

  Winning, Simple, Years

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• Today's public education system is a failed monopoly: bureaucratic, rigid and in unsteady control of dissatisfied captive markets.

  David T. Kearns

  Education, Today, Monopoly

  "Parental Choice in Public Schools Gains" by Edward B. Fiske, www.nytimes.com. July 11, 1988.

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• Since there is no system of public education, the great majority of my fellow citizens is frighteningly ignorant. They have no idea where Iraq is. They accept as the gospel whatever the government tells them. Good grief, any other normal country would have been against the Iraq war! But we live in an abnormal country, governed by experts in deceptive advertising.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, War, Grief

  "The End of Gore Vidal". Interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh, www.guernicamag.com. August 15, 2012.

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• The Figurehead of American Public Education Who Prefers Private Religious Education (!)All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith.

  Rod Paige

  Christian, Religious, Appreciation

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• It is now quite obvious that the humanists are using public education as the battering ram with which to destroy Christianity in the United States.

  Samuel Blumenfeld

  Christian, Religious, United States

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• Standardized tests are an indicator of the kind of service taxpayers are receiving - and whether schools, educators and policymakers are doing their jobs. In the United States, taxpayers spend almost $600 billion annually on public education, so it's not unreasonable to ask what all that money is producing. In fact, it's irresponsible not to know.

  Michelle Rhee

  Leadership, Education, Money

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• For Americans the contradiction between national ideal and social fact required explanation and correction. Ultimately this contradiction did not lead to the abandonment of the ideal of equal opportunity but rather to its postponement: to the notion of achieving for the next generation what could not be achieved for the current one. And the chief means to this end was a brilliant American invention: universal, free, compulsory public education. This "solution" was especially important for children and families because it gave children a central role in achieving the national ideal.

  Kenneth Keniston

  Education, Children, Mean

  Kenneth Keniston (1977). “All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure”, Harcourt on Demand

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• I guess nobody assumes anybody is a libertarian. It's a more complex political discussion than most people are used to, to explain why you think the way you do about public education or drug laws, and why it's not as simple as being for or against something.

  Dave Barry

  Simple, Thinking, Law

  ""All I Think Is That It's Stupid": An Interview with Dave Barry". Interview with Glenn Garvin, reason.com. December, 1994.

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• In the Brown decision, the United States Supreme Court unanimously struck down the legal and moral footing of racially segregated public education in this country.

  Bobby Scott

  Education, Country, Decision

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