WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Duncan Rules

Ed sec. Arne Duncan says he will use his executive authority to impose rules on schools and districts if congress doesn't reauthorize NCLB by the fall.

“We’re not going to sit here and do nothing. Our first priority is to have Congress rewrite the law. If that doesn’t get done, we have the obligation to provide relief in exchange for reform.” ”-- NYTza

Cleaning up Daley's reform mess

New Chicago schools CEO Jean Claude Brizard says he's busy cleaning up the “collateral damage” of past reforms.  

“I think the New Schools work so far has been good, but what it’s done, from what I’ve seen so far, is it’s created two different school systems,” he said. “That’s what I meant by collateral damage.” -- NYT

Don Washington

Many of us feel the President Obama has let us down and that the political system has failed us all. The truth is that this is always the way it's been. As my grandfather said: "Democracy is the battle that never ends, you are fighting for something or losing everything... We are the children of faith and social justice and history tells us that together we are an unstoppable coalition and a reflection of the very best virtues and values of our country. We will one day come together to compel this President or the next to pursue social justice and protect ordinary people from the powerful and selfish. -- Mayoral Tutorial 

 Marc Tucker's report nixes current reform agenda

'It turns out that neither the researchers whose work is reported on in this paper nor the analysts of the OECD PISA data have found any evidence that any country that leads the world’s education performance league tables has gotten there by implementing any of the major agenda items that dominate the education reform agenda in the United States.' -- Report: Standing on the shoulders of giants