Wendy Kopp Quotes

I have a wonderful, diverse, and young staff at the AAPF who pretty much work around the clock trying to figure out how we promote the idea that social justice requires us to be intersectional in our thinking and in our scope of vision.

A core part of Teach For America's mission has always been affecting positive change in the traditional public school system.

Imagine how different those classrooms could be if hundreds of Nigeria's most talented recent graduates and professionals channeled their energy not only into the country's banks, but into making education in the country a force for transformation.

The NAACP was even considering earlier this summer reassessing their position on school integration.

Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.

I grew up in a country where the environment was very social justice-oriented.

Teach For America is working hard to be one significant source of the leadership we need.

I think the way to understand Teach for America is as a leadership development program.

In approaching this problem [school desegregation], we cannot turn the clock back...

Civil rights is unfinished business. Make it your business.

I can relate to pushing yourself because you want to help and move culture toward justice.

We are fighting for an unapologetic movement for economic, social, and racial justice in the United States.

I'm just about social justice. Amen to women like me!

Education is both a tool of social justice as well as a fundamental driver of economic development.

Any serious shift towards more sustainable societies has to include gender equality.

I often tell people I don't care whether they join the NAACP or some other group, but you better join something.

I believe public education is the new civil rights battle and I support charter schools.

I think Teach for America has suffered from the fact that I did not teach, in a major way. I also think if I had taught, I wouldn't have started Teach for America.

And I think that we in America need to understand that many schools need improvement, and particularly with respect to how they're serving minority children.

Ending educational inequality is going to require systemic change and a long-term, sustained effort. There are no shortcuts and no silver bullets.

Teach For America provides one of the most critical pipelines for bringing new talent into public education.

Certainly we can end racism with love. We can demand that the federal government change its emphasis on racial distinction.

School choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.

If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals.

We cannot reform institutional racism or systemic policies if we are not actively engaged. It's not enough to simply complain about injustice; the only way to prevent future injustice is to create the society we would like to see, one where we are all equal under the law.