As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.
The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality fo result. Its equality of opportunity. There's a fundamental difference.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of providing everyone with equal opportunities rather than ensuring equal outcomes.
Robert Reich highlights a key distinction in the liberal ideal of equality: it advocates for equal opportunities for all individuals to succeed rather than guaranteeing that everyone achieves the same results. This perspective underscores the value of freedom and fairness in allowing individuals to pursue their own paths, while acknowledging that differing outcomes may arise based on personal choices and circumstances.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech advocating for educational reform, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of ensuring all students have equal access to resources.
More from Robert Reich
All quotes βWhat are called 'public schools' in many of America's wealthy communities aren't really 'public' at all. In effect, they're private schools, whose tuition is hidden away in the purchase price of upscale homes there, and in the corresponding property taxes.
What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society.
Tax laws favor capital over labor, giving capital gains a lower rate than ordinary income. The rich get humongous mortgage interest deductions while renters get no deduction at all.
The dirty little secret is that both houses of Congress are irrelevant. ... America's domestic policy is now being run by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, and America's foreign policy is now being run by the International Monetary Fund [IMF]. ...when the president decides to go to war, he no longer needs a declaration of war from Congress.
You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.
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The conscious mind determines the actions, the unconscious mind determines the reactions; and the reactions are just as important as the actions.
Most of God's people are contented to be saved from the hell that is without; they are not so anxious to be saved from the hell that is within.
Human beings are pattern-seeking animals who will prefer even a bad theory or a conspiracy theory to no theory at all.
Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.
The truly good and wise man will bear all kinds of fortune in a seemly way, and will always act in the noblest manner that the circumstances allow.
We cannot let our angels go; we do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in.