By far the most important factor in the success or failure of any school far more important than tests or standards or business-model methods of accountability is simply attracting the best-educated most exciting young people into urban schools and keeping them there.
No student of Chinese history can say that the Chinese are incapable of religious experience even when judged by the standards of medieval Europe or pious India.
Let us be about setting high standards for life love creativity and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to.
Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities so the social process requires standardization of man and this standardization is called equality.
Time after time we're told corporations should have freedom from pesky job safety regulations environmental protections and labor standards - giving working people the freedom to be crushed in collapsing mines choke on filthy air and get paid too little to live on.
Despite Arizona's remarkable growth in recent years we have met the current federal health standards for ozone pollution and the Environmental Protection Agency recently approved our dust control plan.
Our work on light bulbs wasn't an arbitrary mandate. We didn't just pick a standard out of the air or look for a catchy sounding standard like 25 by 2025 not based in science or feasibility. Instead we worked with both industry and environmental groups to come up with a standard that made sense and was doable.
Pushing production out of America to nations without our environmental standards increases global environmental risks.
Where the private sector or anyone else has skills knowledge and resources that can help to deliver a high quality of education and to raise standards we should use them.
Look I want what's good for everybody. I want to promote good state education for all. I want to raise standards for all kids irrespective of race and class but why can't they all just do what I say when I know I'm right?