WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Charles Blow

"We risk the creation of an engorged generational underclass born of a culture that has less income equality and fewer prospects for mobility than the previous generation." -- The Decade of Lost Children

Susan Klonsky

Perhaps Mayor Emanuel should go out for a few nights with the city workers who know where to look — up in the deep recesses beyond the chain link fences under bridges, along the banks of the North Branch, in storm drains, in the voids behind city parking lots, under city trucks, under loading docks, any place with a semblance of a roof to keep the rain off — and see what he is cutting, and whose lives are deemed throwaways. --Chicago Sun-Times

Gates bankrolling corporate reform groups

"Nobody elected Bill Gates to run our schools, and yet his money is driving so many policies and so many of these reforms," said Sue Peters, a parent and co-founder of the local chapter of Parents Across America, which has about 50 members and tracks the foundation's connections in this state. -- Seattle Times

Chester Finn (Fordham Institute) on Duncan's waivers 

“Even if one agrees with [Duncan] on the merits, as I do, the law doesn’t say he can unilaterally impose new conditions that aren’t in the law,” said Finn, a Republican. “There’s a separation of powers issue involved here. To what extent does the executive branch get to decide what’s in the law?” -- Washington Post

Diane Ravitch

"In some respects, this has been a tough year for me. It has been a year of brickbats and insults: I have been called a hypocrite, insincere, dishonest, pathological liar, and a cherry-picker, but best of all: Bill Gates Chief Adversary; and Whittaker Chambers of School Reform. I would much rather be Whittaker Chambers than Alger Hiss! But if you are a teacher or parent, you have had to take many more insults and real hits than I have. -- But if you are a teacher or parent, you have had to take many more insults and real hits than I have."-- Teacher Ken at Daily Kos