This year, education often dominated the national conversation. New appointments in the Education Department and escalating debates on college access brought school-related issues further into the public eye. It can be easy to get lost in the ever-changing news cycle, so to look back on the year, we’ve selected ten of the most compelling quotes about schools and learning from this year’s education coverage in The Atlantic.
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It’s hard to just say: Pretty please, treat our children well. My parents brought me up to be gracious, to ask nicely, but it’s hard to get the bureaucracy to listen, and it’s hard to get the political powers that be to listen and deliver, without mobilizing and standing on the steps of City Hall and demanding.
—Eva Moskowitz
Eva Moskowitz, one of the country’s most infamous charter-school reformers, published a memoir this year that told the tale of her role in building up the New York City charter-school system. Moskowitz spoke with The Atlantic about her memoir and the controversies surrounding her work.
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I will refer back to Senator Enzi and the school he is talking about in Wyoming. I think probably there, I would imagine there is probably a gun in a school to protect from potential grizzlies.
—Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos’ appointment as the Education Secretary aroused the kind of controversy that isn’t usually seen in the world of education. Statements she made during her hearing—including this notorious quote, in which she responded to a question about whether guns belong in schools—made her the laughingstock of late-night comedy and were ridiculed across social media. In this moment, DeVos drew on a story Republican Senator Mike Enzi had told about a school in Wyoming that had fences around it to protect from grizzly bears.