Even In A Time Of Fiscal Austerity,

We Need To Lengthen The School Day. We Need To Lengthen The School Year. Our Calendar Is Based Upon The Agrarian Economy. Children In India And China Are Going To School 25, 30, 35 More Days A Year. They're Just Working Harder Than Us. So, We Need More Time, Particularly For Disadvantaged Children, Who Aren't Getting Those Supports At Home.

Borrowing To Pay For College Used To Be The Exception; Now It's The Rule.

Research Shows That Children Do Better In School And Are Less Likely To Drop Out When Fathers Are Involved. Engaged Parents Can Strengthen Communities, Mentor And Tutor Students, And Demonstrate Through Their Actions How Much They Value Their Children's Education.

At A Time When Going To College Has Never Been More Important, It's Never Been More Expensive, And Our Nation's Families Haven't Been In This Kind Of Financial Duress Since The Great Depression. And So What We Have Is Just Sort Of A Miraculous Opportunity Simply By Stopping The Subsidy To Banks When We Already Have The Risk Of Loans. We Can Plow Those Savings Into Our Students. And We Can Make College Dramatically More Affordable, Tens Of Billions Of Dollars Over The Next Decade.

It's Fascinating To Me That Some Of The Pushback Is Coming From Sort Of White Suburban Moms Who, All Of A Sudden, Their Child Isn't As Brilliant As They Thought They Were, Their Schools Aren't Quite As Good As They Thought They Were. And That's Pretty Scary.