The ladder was there, from the gutter to the university, and for those stalwart enough to ascend it, the schools were a boon and a path out of poverty.

American education has been littered with failed fads and foolish ideas for the past century.

If charter schools are not more successful on average than the public schools they replace, what is accomplished by demolishing public education? What is the rationale for authorizing for-profit charters or charter management organizations with high-paid executives, since their profits and high salaries are paid by taxpayers' dollars?

Accountability makes no sense when it undermines the larger goals of education.

Those who can’t teach, pass laws about how to evaluate teachers.

American Education has a long history of infatuation with fads and ill-considered ideas. The current obsession with making our schools work like a business may be the worst of them, for it threatens to destroy public education. Who will Stand up to the tycoons and politicians and tell them so?

Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.