Whenever there are changes to school budgets, we know teachers feel it first.

Ideally, DonorsChoose.org wouldn't be necessary for basic supplies, but I hope we'll always be a platform for teachers to request resources that would bring the learning experience of their students to the next level.

I'd love DonorsChoose.org to become a place where teachers can post innovative, out-of-the-box projects that they can't get funding for traditionally.

I was a social studies teacher at a high school in the Bronx for five years.

People on the front lines have the best ideas for how to improve things.

Our only political stance is this: listen to these teachers.

Laptops are important, but before you spend a million dollars per school providing one laptop per child... won't you please spend $5,000 per school equipping every classroom with a document camera?

We will employ almost every strategy and hustle in any possible way to recruit top engineers to our team.

We believe in the wisdom of the front lines.

Hardworking, passionate teachers know their students' needs better than anyone else in the school environment. If we can tap into their needs, we can unleash smarter solutions and empower those people on the front lines.

I'd listened to my colleagues in the teachers' lunchroom. I could tell they were passionate, fired-up people who had great ideas for strategies and projects to help kids learn better. They just didn't have the resources. I was frustrated, but I also knew it was a frustration felt by teachers all over the city.

We want to use our site to galvanize people to give but also to take important steps toward real change.

Teachers know how to improve education.

We are so humbled and grateful to Google for their devotion to our teachers and students.

KIPP schools would be just a shining example of schools where students aren't just given homework and taught imaginative ways, but they're really brought into a culture of education.

I think there are really are some public schools, incredibly successful public schools, that are inculcating a real educational ethic in their students.

If you just believe in our democracy, and you want an informed electorate, public schools are in your interest, and I think our country is dependent on public schools, whether or not you personally have a kid in the public school system.

If anything, we hope that DonorsChoose.org is going to be a prompt, a nudge in the side of the public school system to improve and to start delivering these materials and experiences that students need and to make it easier for teachers to innovate.

To get DonorsChoose.org to scale, we first need to increase the viral appeal of our website.

I had really good relationship with my students; it definitely took me a few months before I had my students' respect.

I think it's the strength of the idea that's made Donors Choose work, not me. I mean, I'm determined, and I work hard, but so does everyone else.

Teachers know how to improve education, but they are a voice that is consistently overlooked or ignored.

I do not live off canned soup.

I've met with titans of Silicon Valley because they're investing in our national expansion. I've had lunch with Claire Danes because she sees DonorsChoose.org as the best way to help students in public schools. I would never, ever rub shoulders with such people if I had followed the typical career path in investment banking or whatever.