Benefits Quote by Nicholas Lemann

“I am always suspicious of the formulation that "politics" has prevented a great idea from being enacted by government. Politics IS government, in a democratic society. It's a challenge for school reformers, like reformers in any realm, to build a popular constituency for their work. If the people it's supposed to benefit vote against it, that tells me that the person pushing reform lacks political skill. And political skill is a good thing.”

Nicholas Lemann

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.3 out of 5 (8 ratings)

More by Nicholas Lemann

I am not against standardized tests. There are tests and tests and tests, and, to simplify, the ones I favor are criterion-referenced tests of…

Nicholas Lemann

Image

Profound question is how do you measure the non-skills component of what goes on in schools: values, curiosity, critical thinking, and so on. That's…

Nicholas Lemann

Image

One of the most consistent findings about low performing schools and students is that "home variables" (parental income and education, etc.) are more predictive…

Nicholas Lemann

Image

You can't create a successful politics of support for public education on the basis of asking voters not to care about skills, and tests…

Nicholas Lemann

Image

In journalism, especially, we tend to deal with large, complex systems by finding especially interesting people and story lines to focus on.

Nicholas Lemann

Image

I think serious research tends to be associated with higher academic quality, more prestige, more resources, and even, heaven help us, better teaching, to…

Nicholas Lemann

Image

In the current environment, attributing low student performance to teacher tenure is one of the great unproven causal links out there. The relationship just…

Nicholas Lemann

Image

Explore all 8 Nicholas Lemann quotes

More Benefits quotes

If the members of parliament no longer consider themselves mandatories of the taxpayers but deputies of those receiving salaries, wages, subsidies, doles, and other…

Ludwig von Mises

Image

[The Dalai Lama] told me some years ago, "I've made every concession to China, and I've been as open and tolerant as I could,…

Pico Iyer

Image

Anger is a rough water; if you can canalize it into a water mill, you can benefit from it. Anything bad can be transformed…

Mehmet Murat Ildan

Image

Shortly after I turned 50, both Ted Turner and the AARP came into my life. The only difference? With AARP, there were benefits.

Jane Fonda

Image

That old man dies prematurely whose memory records no benefits conferred. They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Image

Politics is about power. It is about the power of the state. It is about the power of the state as applied to individuals,…

Kevin Rudd

Image

Therefore, I see whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness, wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as…

Hermann Hesse

Image

Trust is about keeping commitments, but in many instances, circumstances change and organizations therefore shed commitments, things such as retiree medical benefits, pension obligations,…

Jeffrey Pfeffer