“We need to start talking about this. Strangely, the rapid growth in the rich-poor educational gap provides a ray of hope: if the relationship between family income and educational success can change this rapidly, then it is not an immutable, inevitable pattern. What changed once can change again. Policy choices matter more than we have recently been taught to think. So how can we move toward a society in which educational success is not so strongly linked to family background? Maybe we should take a lesson from the rich and invest much more heavily as a society in our children’s educational opportunities from the day they are born. Investments in early-childhood education pay very high societal dividends. That means investing in developing high-quality child care and preschool that is available to poor and middle-class children. It also means recruiting and training a cadre of skilled preschool teachers and child care providers. These are not new ideas, but we have to stop talking about how expensive and difficult they are to implement and just get on with it.”
No Rich Child Left Behind, 2013
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Sean Reardon 6
American sociologistRelated quotes

“Only by changing education can we change the world.”
Address of Pope Francis to members of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation, 25 June 2018 .
Source: Address of Pope Francis to members of the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/june/documents/papa-francesco_20180625_gravissimum-educationis.html
2010s, 2018

Address at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa (15 October 1962) https://news.cornellcollege.edu/dr-martin-luther-kings-visit-to-cornell-college/; also quoted in Wall Street Journal (13 November 1962), Notable & Quotable , p. 18
Variant:
It is true that behavior cannot be legislated, and legislation cannot make you love me, but legislation can restrain you from lynching me, and I think that is kind of important.
Address at Finney Chapel, Oberlin College (22 October 1964), as reported in "When MLK came to Oberlin" by Cindy Leise, The Chronicle-Telegram (21 January 2008)
1960s

"A Prospect of Europe", 1997 speech at the University of New South Wales.

2010s, Farewell Speech (2017)
Context: I want to recognize all of you who are here in this audience. We have our educators, our leaders, our young people who have been with us since we launched Reach Higher https://www.whitehouse.gov/reach-higher back in 2014. Now, when we first came up with this idea, we had one clear goal in mind: We wanted to make higher education cool. We wanted to change the conversation around what it means and what it takes to be a success in this country. Because let's be honest, if we're always shining the spotlight on professional athletes or recording artists or Hollywood celebrities, if those are the only achievements we celebrate, then why would we ever think kids would see college as a priority?

“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world”
" Lighting your way to a better future : Speech delivered by Mr N R Mandela at launch of Mindset Network http://db.nelsonmandela.org/speeches/pub_view.asp?pg=item&ItemID=NMS909&txtstr=education%20is%20the%20most%20powerful," July 16, 2003 at db.nelsonmandela.org. ; Cited in: Nelson Mandela, S. K. Hatang, Sahm Venter (2012) Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom. p. 101.
2000s
Context: Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world and is a powerful part of that world changing arsenal.

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Nine, Flying and Seeing: New Ways to Learn

My escape from North Korea https://www.ted.com/talks/hyeonseo_lee_my_escape_from_north_korea (March 2013)

Source: What Got You Here Won't Get You There, 2008, p. 125 (in 2010 edition)