Gray           1          Education of America

• March 30, 2012, A task force says that U.S. schools are failing to prepare students to compete with and understand the rest of the world.
• Better resources and more uniform standards in states are needed to keep children from being distracted.

Gray       2          Education of America

• There have been many attempts to improve our education system in the past few decades.
• Many schools in today's time are not meeting the standards that have been set.

Gray              3               Education of America

• Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ex-New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein recently warned that America's security and economic prosperity are at risk if our schools do not improve.
• There are important gaps in resources between many of the wealthier jurisdictions and many of the poorer jurisdictions.

Gray         4              Education of America

• Today it would be more accurate to say that we have two systems of public education, not one.
• The first of them is based principally, though not entirely, in the suburbs of this country and some of the wealthier urban jurisdictions and districts. 

Gray               5                Education of America

• The second system of public education, which is based principally in poorer urban and rural areas, is indeed in crisis.
• There are important gaps in resources between many of the wealthier jurisdictions and many of the poorer jurisdictions. 

Gray               6                Education of America

• When anyone speaks of the distinction between the suburbs and the cities in America, and the distinction between suburban school districts and urban school districts.
• We are talking about education here--public education--but ultimately, given what you've been saying [about] the disparities in education, we're really talking about race and class in America, aren't we?

Gray              7               Education of America

• I don't know of very many people at any point along the political spectrum who want to look forward 10 or 20 years and see an America divided along lines of race, ethnicity, and class.
• I think that all Americans of good will want to see that those divisions narrow in the next generation. 

Gray                 8                  Education of America

• According to the report, key government and military agencies face critical shortfalls in the number of foreign language speakers.
• I think that we are doing fabulously as an economy, in part because we're bringing a lot of brilliant immigrants from abroad, for whom there are plenty of opportunities in the American economy because we're not growing our own.

Gray              9                Education of America

• There is little doubt that having a patchwork of school districts and states with different lesson plans works against launching a coordinated effort to improve standards.
• Considering there are loud voices in politics hat want to reduce the federal role in education, there probably will be a reduce in it.

Gray                 10                Education of America

•  If we're talking about this new economy and people having to be highly skilled, highly trained, well educated.
• That, to a certain degree, a smaller class size, perhaps less anonymous experiences in high schools, better trained teachers, more enthusiastic teachers.