This document discusses how democracy depends on equal access to great teaching. It contains quotes highlighting how education is important for citizens to effectively participate in and govern a democratic society. The document also includes statistics showing disparities in educational attainment between the US and Tennessee. It argues that where someone lives should not determine their access to education or chances of success.

1. Democracy
Depends on Equal Access
To Great Teaching
Rich Haglund, TN SBE
2007 ELA Conference
Rich Haglund, TN State Board of Education SIUC October 2007

2. Thucydides the Buff Historian
(quoting Pericles)
Our constitution is called a
democracy because power
is in the hands not of a
minority but of the whole
people. . . .
No one, so long as he has it in
him to be of service to the
state, is kept in political
obscurity because of poverty. 2

3. Justice Stephen Breyer
The people, and their representatives, must
have the capacity to exercise their
democratic responsibilities. They should
possess the tools, such as information and
education, necessary to participate and to
govern effectively. . . .
The Constitution is not a document
designed to solve the problems of a
community at any level—local, state, or
national. Rather it is a document that trusts
people to solve those problems themselves.
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4. Some Irish Rockers
and an American Geek
All lives—no matter where they are being
led—have equal value.
To whom much is given,
much is expected.
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die
- U2, Crumbs from Your Table
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5. The Student Pipeline
100%
Percentage of 9th grade students
United States
70%
Tennessee
75% 63%
50% 39% 39%
27% 27%
25% 18% 17%
0%
Graduate high Start college Persist 2nd year Earn degree
school
Source: Student Pipeline 2004, unpublished data from the National Center for Higher Education Management
Systems, October 2006. Data are estimates of pipeline progress rather than actual cohort.
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6. A stable and democratic society
is impossible without widespread
acceptance of some common set
of values and without a minimum
degree of literacy and knowledge
on the part of citizens.
- Milton Friedman
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7. We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness.
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8. We have entered an era in which “comfort with ideas
and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in
which creativity and innovation are the key to the good
life” and in which the constant ability to learn how to
learn will be the only security you
[or your children or grandchildren] have.
--Thomas L. Friedman quoting Marc Tucker, NCEE
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