The Failure of American Schools(to turn a profit) - Magazine - The Atlantic

The Failure of American Schools - Magazine - The Atlantic

The Failure of American Schools

Who better to lead an educational revolution than Joel Klein, the prosecutor who took on the software giant Microsoft? But in his eight years as chancellor of New York City’s school system, the nation’s largest, Klein learned a few painful lessons of his own—about feckless politicians, recalcitrant unions, mediocre teachers, and other enduring obstacles to school reform.

By JOEL KLEIN

Above: Joel Klein in Brooklyn on the first day of school, two months before he resigned as chancellor
IMAGE CREDIT: RAMIN TALAIE/CORBIS

THREE YEARS AGO, in a New York Times article detailing her bid to become head of the American Federation of Teachers union, Randi Weingarten boasted that despite my calls for “radical reform” to New York City’s school system, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and I had achieved only “incremental” change. It seemed like a strange thing to crow about, but she did have something of a point. New York over the past nine years has experienced what Robert Schwartz, the dean of