Political Quotes

“Then, with that data, the President called for his all-out war on poverty in the State of the Union Address, which he gave a few days later. His principal programs were educational, such as Head Start and the Job Corps. But soon, the age of Coleman was upon us. It was not at all clear what would change educational achievement. The Department of HEW had some qualms about issuing the report, and indeed Coleman agreed, if they could write an introduction. The introduction took a very long time getting around to the central finding, although in fairness it did. John Herbers, a wonderful reporter for the New York Times, spotted that central finding--you had to do your work to get to it; it was on page 21--and in a New York Times story, he wrote that the ``differences in schools had very little effect on the achievement scores of children with a strong educational background in the home.'' Again, to cite the Commissioner of Education, ``Family background is more important than schools.''”