I believe that the teachers unions are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. They were designed to be professional organizations that protect the rights and privileges and pay of their members. The problem is that we don't have an organized national interest group with the same heft as the teachers union that's advocating on behalf of children.

An education reformer is as important in America as the first lady.

You may not do well, necessarily, up front, and in order to be the best, you've got to work hard.

The reality in Washington D.C. is if you live in Tenleytown versus if you live in Anacostia, you get two wildly different educational experiences. It’s the biggest social injustice imaginable. What we are allowing to happen in this day and age, we are still allowing the color of a child’s skin and the Zip code they live in to dictate their educational outcome, and therefore their life outcome. We are robbing them every single day of their futures. And everybody in this country should be infuriated by that.

Poverty is so significant that we can't expect to overcome the impacts of poverty in schools.

I think people don't talk enough about education and what we need to do in our public education system.

Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job.