Quote

Whether you look at these recent PISA results, which we are mediocre at best, whether you look at a 25 percent dropout rate in this country, whether you look at, in one generation, we're not doing what we need to be doing to keep America great.

Arne Duncan

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Arne Duncan
Age: 59
Born: 1964
Born: November 6
Basketball Player
Politician
Sociologist
Teacher
United States Secretary Of Education
Chicago
Illinois
Arne Starkey Duncan
Great
Results
Whether
Pisa
Keep
Dropout
America
Mediocre
Best
Recent
Look
Rate
Need
Generation
Country
Percent

More quotes by Arne Duncan

Image
Education is the civil rights issue of our generation.
Arne Duncan
Image
We need to lengthen the school day. We need to lengthen the school year. Our calendar is based upon the agrarian economy. Children in India and China are going to school 25, 30, 35 more days a year. They're just working harder than us. So, we need more time, particularly for disadvantaged children, who aren't getting those supports at home.
Arne Duncan
Image
I just think we can't do enough of this [student exchanges]... And when you get young children traveling internationally, I think they come back different people. And you can't put a price tag - you can't put a value on that.
Arne Duncan
Image
No one is mandating merit pay.
Arne Duncan
Image
Teachers say their schools of education did not adequately prepare them for the classroom. They would have welcomed more mentoring and feedback in their early years.
Arne Duncan
Image
Hungry children are distracted children. We want to make sure nothing gets in the way of our children performing well academically, including hunger.
Arne Duncan
Image
City Year is taking on some of the toughest work in education.
Arne Duncan
Image
Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense.
Arne Duncan
Image
The arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds students will go on to graduate from college.
Arne Duncan
Image
The jobs of the future, as you know so well, are knowledge-based. You need college-educated folks to do this work. And so the consequences for our country are absolutely devastating if we don't start to behave in very different ways.
Arne Duncan
Image
It's fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from sort of white suburban moms who, all of a sudden, their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were, their schools aren't quite as good as they thought they were. And that's pretty scary.
Arne Duncan
Image
The cost of college should never discourage anyone from going after a valuable degree.
Arne Duncan
Image
To encourage more top-caliber students to choose teaching, teachers should be paid a lot more, with starting salaries more in the range of $60,000 and potential earnings of as much as $150,000.
Arne Duncan
Image
Research shows that children do better in school and are less likely to drop out when fathers are involved. Engaged parents can strengthen communities, mentor and tutor students, and demonstrate through their actions how much they value their children's education.
Arne Duncan
Image
If children are hungry, they need to be fed. It's hard to learn if your stomach is growling. We need to take that on. If students can't see the blackboard, need eyeglasses, we need to do that. If students need a social worker or counselor to work through the challenges they're facing at home in the community, we need to do that.
Arne Duncan
Image
We need to invest in very different ways. Get the students the support they need, get them the best principals, get them the great teachers, and I promise you those students would do extraordinarily well. I have seen it all my life.
Arne Duncan
Image
We've seen more reform in the last year than we've seen in decades, and we haven't spent a dime yet. It's staggering how the Recovery Act is driving change.
Arne Duncan
Image
My vision is that schools need to be community centers. Schools need to be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day six, seven days a week, 12 months out of the year, with a whole host of activities, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Arne Duncan
Image
Far too many of our children today, our students, need remedial education. We have been lying to them. They're not really ready for college. That's not higher education's fault. That's our fault K-12.
Arne Duncan
Image
State governments generate less revenue in a recession. As state leaders struggle to make up for lost revenue, legislatures tend to cut funding for higher education. Colleges, in turn, answer these funding cuts with tuition hikes.
Arne Duncan