Believing the reformers
140 Chicago schools targeted
Columnist Gene Lyons, posting at Salon.com, warns us: "Don’t believe the education “reformers.” Public schools, he says, are better than we think and efforts to quantify teacher performance are typically destructive. Writes Lyons:
All educational Miracle Cures and panaceas are wrong, and many who push them are charlatans—starting with the ubiquitous Michelle Rhee. Schools get better when communities get richer, rarely the other way around. Remember when charter schools and vouchers were going to save the world? There’s no evidence they’ve out-performed public schools. For all the attacks on public school teachers as indolent dolts who are also somehow cunning and effective political operatives, in my experience most work harder and take their responsibilities more seriously than their presumed betters in the editorial suites and CNN talk shows.
Oh, brave new world that has such noble reformers in it.
Case in Point
