When nearly a third of our high school students do not graduate on time with their peers, we have work to do. We must design our middle and high schools so that no student gets lost in the crowd and disconnected from his or her own potential.

Vernon Reis opened the world to me through books. He taught me that while I was physically firmly planted in blue-collar Auburn, Washington in the 50s and early 60s, intellectually I could go anywhere, explore anything, and sample exciting new ideas simply by opening a book.

We may disagree on some things, but we can do so without being disagreeable.

One of the most powerful tools for empowering individuals and communities is making certain that any individual who wants to receive a quality education can do so.

The US government should not be in the business of discrimination.

We need to take advantage of the opportunity we have now to create a vision and become great.

Truly, the challenges we face are not Democratic challenges or Republican challenges. In fact, they are not political challenges at all; they are fiscal challenges, and educational challenges, and the challenges of figuring out how to take care of each other...