WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Nate Parker, star of "Blood Done Sign My Name"

Parker says the time is right for this type of film. “You look at the issues like schools being privatized. That’s another new segregation. You look at the dropout rate, which is 50 percent among black males in New York City. (Sun-Times)

Ownership Society run amok

Our government is not broken; it's been bought out from under us, and on the right and the left and smack across the vast middle, more and more Americans doubt representative democracy can survive the corruption of money. (Bill Moyers & Michael Winship)

"Out-compete!"

Which schools can get Obama as their graduation speaker?

Public schools that encourage systemic reform and embrace effective approaches to teaching and learning help prepare America’s students to graduate ready for college and a career, and enable them to out-compete any worker, anywhere in the world. (Barack Obama on FB)

Why School?

The race is on. Forty-one states have just finished the mad dash to submit proposals for the Obama education initiative, Race to the Top. Now that the first round of competition is over we should be asking the basic questions that got lost in the flurry: What is the true purpose of all this reform? What should it be? Why do we send our kids to school? (Mike Rose, Truthdig)

From one of my grad students after observing at a small Chicago charter school

In general, students seemed to be very happy and engaged in almost all the classes I observed. I was able to speak with several of the teachers. Each was so excited about [teaching) and really felt like they were part of something important...This all seemed like such a positive move toward more equal and stimulating education. However, what I was left with was this nagging feeling that the kids down the street [at 2 large traditional high schools] were getting the short end of the stick...The nature of an acquisitive society requires that someone be left out. In addition, the education provided at [the charter] is only possible because of the school's ability to acquire monetary resources.