These are important reforms. Infrastructure education health hospitals closing the gap with indigenous Australians. Also the Apology to the first Australians. As Prime Minister of the country I am proud of each and every one of these achievements.
Access to books and the encouragement of the habit of reading: these two things are the first and most necessary steps in education and librarians teachers and parents all over the country know it. It is our children's right and it is also our best hope and their best hope for the future.
The gap in education in this country the unfairness of the schools is one of the great unfairness in this society.
I'm sure I am impatient sometimes. I sure do get angry sometimes. I think it's outrageous how hard it is to get this country to feed its children and to take care of its children to give them a decent education.
The government has convinced parents that at some point it's no longer their responsibility. And in fact they force them in many respects to turn their children over to the public education system and wrest control from them and block them out of participation of that. That has to change or education will not improve in this country.
Higher education is one of few areas where this country competes with the rest of the world and wins. The best of American higher education outstrips any in the world. Look where the rest of the world goes for higher education for graduate degrees. They come here.
Giving women education work the ability to control their own income inherit and own property benefits the society. If a woman is empowered her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper the village prospers and eventually so does the whole country.
To defend a country you need an army but to defend a civilization you need education.
A country like Belgium or socialist countries in central Europe spend more money on art education than the United States which is a really puzzling thought.
There are over 200 million illiterate women in India. This low literacy negatively impacts not just their lives but also their families' and the country's economic development. A girl's lack of education also has a negative impact on the health and well-being of her children.
Abraham Lincoln comes from nothing has no education no money lives in the middle of nowhere on the frontier. And despite the fact that he suffers one tragedy and one setback after another through sheer force of will he becomes something extraordinary: not only the president but the person who almost single-handedly united the country.
President Obama believes in a country where we invest in education in roads and bridges in science and in the future so we can create new opportunities so the next kid can make it big and the kid afer that and the kid after that that's what President Obama believes.
Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.
If you know how to read you have a complete education about life then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don't know how to read you don't know how to decide. That's the great thing about our country - we're a democracy of readers and we should keep it that way.
Our universities and museums are respected around the country.
There has been enough suffering in our country there has been enough of children whose dreams die before they have a chance to grow and there has been enough of our elders who having served their nation are forced into indignity in their old age.
Throw your dreams into space like a kite and you do not know what it will bring back a new life a new friend a new love a new country.