Education is the only billion dollar industry that tolerates abject failure.

Let's stop teaching to the middle and start teaching to the student.

Osama Bin Laden is not going to come here and destroy America. Our education system is doing that just fine.

You have to be prepared to think outside the box...Stand back and think about what we could do creativity. We've got to do that to push the field forward.

I want to be a children’s hero… Children need heroes because heroes give hope; without hope they have no future.

When kids know that you refuse to let them fail ... they don't give up as easy. So sometimes they don't have it inside, [but] they're like,'You know, I don't want to do this, but I know my mother's going to be mad.'That matters to kids, and it helps get them through.

Over the past five years, I've met several presidents, several secretaries of education ... and there is no plan. If you want to save your children, you're going to have to do it yourself. It's just us.