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.

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.

Borrowing to pay for college used to be the exception; now it's the rule.

The cost of college should never discourage anyone from going after a valuable degree.

Wherever you find something extraordinary, you’ll find the fingerprints of a great teacher.

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.

Teachers support evaluations based on multiple measures: student growth, classroom observation and feedback from peers and parents.