States Should Not Balance Their Budgets On

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.

To Be Clear, We The Department Of Education Want Curriculum To Be Driven By The Local Level. We Are By Law Prohibited From Directing Curriculum. We Don't Have A Curriculum Department.

When Schools Truly Become Centers Of The Community, Where You Have Extraordinary Teachers, The Best Teachers, The Best Principals, Great Nonprofit Partners Coming In During The Non-school Hours To Support And Do Enrichment Activities, Social Services, Then Those Students Will Beat The Odds, Will Beat Poverty, Will Beat Violence In The Community, Will Beat Sometimes Dysfunctional Families, And Be Productive Citizens Long Term. They Will Go To College.

Far Too Many Of Our Children Today, Our Students, Need Remedial Education. We Have Been Lying To Them. They're Not Really Ready For College. That's Not Higher Education's Fault. That's Our Fault K-12.

We All Have A Role To Play - The President, Congress, Parents, Students And Schools - In Making College Affordable And Keeping The Middle Class Dream Alive.