James S. Coleman Quotes

Public schools were designed as the great equalizers of our society - the place where all children could have access to educational opportunities to make something of themselves in adulthood.

Regardless of zip code, talent and IQ are evenly distributed, so we need to make sure that opportunity is evenly distributed, too.

Fairness is not the end result, it's the opportunity. And everybody in America today has the opportunity to get ahead.

Middle America believes in fair play, an equal opportunity to succeed or to fail.

This is what America is about when it comes to understanding that it is equal opportunity versus equal achievement. Each and every one of us has the opportunity for greatness in this country.

Everybody should have an equal chance - but they shouldn't have a flying start.

Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? … Was it because our predecessors were thick? Does anybody really think that they didn't get what we had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment? Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.

In a country where there is no privileged class, genius and industry may attain the highest honors.

Education is the great equalizer, and shouldn’t be limited to the wealthiest few.

Education levels the playing field, allowing everyone to compete.

We must ensure that every single child can go as far as their ability and their aspirations will take them.

We were a land of opportunity. You can never have equal outcomes, but you can have equal opportunity.

All men will commence in their present rank and promotion will be open to all men alike, without any distinctions or qualifications, political or otherwise.

Parikrma aims to give underprivileged children an equal chance at education so they can integrate with kids of private schools and, later, with the society. I want these children to hold high-end jobs at multinational companies and not work at the lower end of the spectrum.

Now, as a nation, we don't promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That's an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

A basic element of the American dream is equal access to education as the lubricant of social and economic mobility.

I had no need to apologize that the look-wider, search-more affirmative action that Princeton and Yale practiced had opened doors for me. That was its purpose: to create the conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run.

Now we Democrats believe that America is still the country of fair play, that we can come out of a small town or a poor neighborhood and have the same chance as anyone else, and it doesn't matter whether we are black or Hispanic, or disabled or women.

President Obama believes in a level playing field.

The American dream, to me, means having the opportunity to achieve, because I don't think you should be guaranteed anything other than opportunity.

In America, opportunity and equality are not a zero-sum game

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

A meritocracy increases inequality --- by its very nature, it has to.

Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions.

At its core, a fair and just society is one where opportunity is open to all - not just those at the top.