Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: If this is the 'civil rights issue of our time,' who's who?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: If this is the 'civil rights issue of our time,' who's who?:

If this is the 'civil rights issue of our time,' who's who?

by Mike Klonsky

In this Oct. 15, 1957 file photo, seven of nine black students walk onto the campus of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., with a National Guard officer as an escort as other troops watch. (AP Photo, Fred Kaufman, File)

Education is the civil rights issue of our time. At least that's what the school reformers like to say. The phrase has been repeated so often by the likes of Secretary Duncan, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, and Condeleeza Rice-- that it's become meaningless.

I, for one, have always felt uncomfortable with this claim and especially with those who were making it. There is