Donna Shalala Quotes

You go to college not only for the latest knowledge but also to meet people from different backgrounds. That’s the genius of the American higher-education system compared with the Europeans’. We don’t simply skim the elite.

You don’t want to destroy the energy that comes out of a campaign.

You can’t have a university without having free speech, even though at times it makes us terribly uncomfortable. If students are not going to hear controversial ideas on college campuses, they’re not going to hear them in America. I believe it’s part of their education.

What you really remember at the beginning was that you have to throw a budget together. We made some terrible mistakes at the beginning in my own budget that took us at least a year to catch up on.

We need to drive down requirements for the schools. In the 19th century, we increased the quality of the schools by higher education saying, ‘You can’t come in unless you have these skills, unless you’ve taken these courses.’ We did that in Wisconsin when I was there, it helped to transform the secondary school system.

We know the parental support, community support, makes a difference. It’s not just the metrics of testing and putting pressure on the schools and on the teachers.

We have to mainstream everybody. No matter what their circumstances when they were growing up. Part of that is knowing that after they’re finished with school, everybody in this country gets up and goes to work.

We have not yet concluded that needle-exchange programs do not encourage drug use.

We can’t afford as a nation – not because of money but because of our social fabric – to have large numbers of people who are not working.

We are living longer, and we need to live better.

The government is fully capable of delivering services. Even complex services.

The economic dimension is very clear. I was at a dinner party, a mother got up, who’s a very distinguished scientist, and said she had to get home and help her daughter with her homework. The two waiters, their faces changed. They were working their second jobs, they couldn’t get home to help their kids with homework.

The dog doesn’t know the difference between Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so I have to walk the dog early those days too.

Sure, it is apparent that presidents are looking at polls, but they are also stepping up on issues. President Clinton stepped up on tobacco. He shaped the polls on the tobacco issue.

S*x education has to do with what’s in people’s head.

Our young people are out on the streets looking for parties, a place to dance, looking for a scene. No institutions are providing them with alternatives, fun things to do that don’t necessarily have alcohol at the center.

It’s coaches. It’s people that are involved in kids’ lives at every level, and it’s supporting their parents. Their parents need better jobs. So that they can help them with their homework and don’t have to work two jobs.

In fairy tales, the children are saved by caring adults. We need more caring adults in the lives of our children.

In every community, whether large or small, there are people who lead in their community in easy and difficult times.

I’ve spent my whole life with people underestimating me.