Even In A Time Of Fiscal Austerity,

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.

To Encourage More Top-caliber Students To Choose Teaching, Teachers Should Be Paid A Lot More, With Starting Salaries More In The Range Of $60,000 And Potential Earnings Of As Much As $150,000.

If The Goal Is To Dramatically Improve College Completion Rates, Not College-going Rates By Itself But College Completion, It's Not Just A College Problem. We Need A Big Focus On Early Childhood Education. Our Early Childhood Education System Is Pretty Good In This Country. Not Enough Students Have Opportunity. And, Very Discouragingly, They Lose Their Advantage Because They Go To Poor Schools After That. So, Let's Focus On Our Babies.

Schools And Districts And Unions Are Working Together On Some Really Innovative Things.

If Children Are Hungry, They Need To Be Fed. It's Hard To Learn If Your Stomach Is Growling. We Need To Take That On. If Students Can't See The Blackboard, Need Eyeglasses, We Need To Do That. If Students Need A Social Worker Or Counselor To Work Through The Challenges They're Facing At Home In The Community, We Need To Do That.