HOLIDAY WEEKEND QUOTABLES

A teenage boy grieves next to a makeshift memorial on July 6, at the site where Ashley Hardmon was shot and killed on July 2nd, in Chicago. The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

Chicago's Killing Field

This year’s Independence Day celebration, for many Chicagoans a four-day respite in the land of the free, was for others an ordeal in a killing field. -- Sun-Times

Arne Duncan 

Honestly, I am getting tired of good news-bad news stories in education. And I am getting impatient with talking about “islands of educational excellence...” There is nothing inherently good or bad about a charter or any other school.-- The Answer Sheet

Ohio charter school board member, Lillie Blair

“It takes a couple of years to get an understanding of what’s going on” as a board member. After you serve a few years, your eyes begin to open and it’s like . . . wait a minute.” -- White Hat Management's Ohio charter schools in the midst of upheaval

Elizabeth Davis, newly-elected D.C. union prez

“We do not plan to be a roadblock to school reform or play to the stereotype of a union that blocks improvements, but we do not plan to be silent” on such issues. -- Washington Post