Tressie McMillan Cottom, 10/16/12

PhD student, Department of Sociology, Emory University, OpEd Project Public Voices Fellow

To charge a parent with "stealing" public education is to admit that not all schools are created equal. Do we really believe that school districts would hire private investigators if the parent were enrolling her student in a school poorer than the one in her home district?

Lisa Belkin, 10/16/12

Chroniqueuse travail/famille, The Huffington Post

The reason the world has changed for kids is not because we don't parent like our grandparents did. To the contrary, the reason we don't parent like our grandparents did is because the world has changed.

Dave Stieber, 10/16/12

Father, husband and CPS history teacher, committed to promoting and improving urban public education

How is it possible to truly have the same opportunities as students in other parts of the city, state, and country when you have to think about your own mortality EVERY day as you walk to and from school?

Paul Stoller, 10/16/12

Professor of Anthropology, West Chester University; Author, 'The Power of the Between'

Young people are at a critical juncture. If we invest in them, we secure their future as well as our own. Once more fully supported, investment in education has now sailed into the troubled waters of contemporary politics.

Paula White, 10/16/12

Founder, Newark Legacy Charter School

As members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) often say, charter schools are no silver bullet for fixing education. No greater proof point exists for this statement than the alarming failure of the UFT Charter School in New York City.

Alayna Ahmad, 10/16/12

Student, Extension School at Harvard

It is particularly tragic to consider that the attack on Malala was an attack on education and intellectual freedom. It is hardly a Western innovation, but an important and enduring legacy of Islam with its tradition of scholarship.

Kevin P. Chavous, 10/16/12

Attorney, author and national school reform leader

I have been thinking about Malala and the fate of millions of Muslim schoolgirls all week. And that knot in my stomach has returned. Why is it that all too often we allow children to do our freedom fighting for us?

Jennifer Peck, 10/16/12

Executive Director, Partnership for Children and Youth

With the adoption of Common Core State Standards, after school and summer programs hold even greater potential. A vast body of research shows that high quality after school and summer programs contribute tremendously to children's learning.

Katy Butler, 10/16/12

Anti-bullying activist

During tonight's debate, we'll hear both candidates' plans for how they plan to lead America to a better tomorrow. For young people like me and for families like mine, a better tomorrow is one where no one has to go to school afraid of being bullied because of who they are.

Allen Frances, 10/15/12

Professor Emeritus, Duke University

The solution to bad schools is to work toward better schools -- not to medicate the kids victimized by them. How absurd to avoid the shortcomings of our educational system by focusing on the difficulties individual children have in coping with them.

Gordon Brown, 10/15/12

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; UN Special Envoy for Global Education

Malala's plight has unleashed an unprecedented outpouring of public support. Now all of us must make that support count -- and deliver on the cause she has been fighting for -- her dream of education for every child.

Allessandra Bradley-Burns, 10/15/12

Innovator & Strategist

Affirmative Action is not only made to change the make up of who gets invited, it is most powerful in its ability to change the lens through which we look at one another.

Dr. Faheem Younus, 10/15/12

Muslim, Professor, Doctor, Philanthropist

As if flogging adulterers, executing civilians, and selling women were not enough, on Oct. 8, the Taliban attempted to assassinate a 14-year-old girl for her public advocacy for education.

Brandon Greene, 10/16/12

Law student, Boston University School of Law; Director of Strategic Media & Marketing, FuelEd

If teachers are our number one resource, why do we treat them so poorly?

Lindsay Gellman, 10/14/12

Research Intern at The Huffington Post

These past warm months have been especially riddled with revelations of academic dishonesty. And the scandals have been extensively covered by the media.

Andy Brack, 10/15/12

President, Center for a Better South

Rita Louise Liddy Hollings, 1935-2012. You enriched the lives of South Carolinians. We'll miss you.

Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, 10/15/12

Professor and director, University of Nebraska at Omaha's School of Communication

Decades of war in Afghanistan have led some to doubt the future, but one brave woman I met last week believes educating the country's girls will make an important difference.