"We all know there are bad teachers. But there's a reason 30 percent burn out after a few years and half leave after five. You're up against a culture that doesn't celebrate education. Now we blame everybody else. We look to blame others and some of this is being ginned up by certain politicians. At Northeast, I saw a lot of good and dedicated teachers. I feel a tremendous responsibility to teachers now."
— Tony Danza, actor, about his first year as a teacher at Northeast High School, Philadelphia
"In a time when America's teachers are scapegoats for problems in public education, I'd like to take a moment ... to recognize NYSUT, which just completed its week-long Leadership Institute. This is an example of the teachers' commitment to improving education; growing their local and state union and the labor movement; and providing for strengthening the next generation of educators and the minds of our children."
— Amy Dean, author, activist, in a blog post, www.amybdean.com
"Cuts in the humanities are bad for business and bad for democracy. ... Democratic politics involves making decisions that affect other people and groups. We can only do this well if we try to imagine what their lives are like and how changes of various sorts affect them. The imagination is an innate gift, but it needs refinement and cultivation; this is what the humanities provide."
— Martha Nussbaum, author of Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, on www.nytimes.com