Parenting & Family Quote by Donna Shalala

Shalala’s line lands like policy talk that’s tired of pretending schools can out-muscle poverty on their own. She starts with the comforting civic myth - the coach, the mentor, the steady adult in a kid’s orbit - then pivots fast to the part that rarely makes it into “education reform” slogans: parents. Not “parental involvement” as a moral lecture, but as a labor condition. You can’t ask a parent to be a nightly tutor if their shift ends at 11 p.m.

The intent is tactical. By naming coaches and “people involved in kids’ lives at every level,” she nods to the community scaffolding voters like to celebrate. But the real argument is structural: support for children is inseparable from support for the adults raising them. “Better jobs” is doing heavy lifting here. It’s shorthand for wages, stability, predictable schedules, and the dignity of not having to stack two jobs just to stay afloat. That’s why the homework detail works - it’s not abstract inequality; it’s a kitchen-table scene made impossible by economic precarity.

The subtext pushes back against a familiar blame cycle. When kids struggle, institutions often pathologize families or demand more “accountability” from schools. Shalala reframes the problem as a time-and-energy deficit manufactured by low-wage work. Coming from a longtime public servant, the context is also a quiet rebuke to siloed governance: education outcomes aren’t only an education department issue. They’re labor policy, family policy, and community investment wearing a backpack.