In the AP Language course I teach, we recently studied logical fallacies, including the “either-or” fallacy, also known as a “false dichotomy.” A perfect real-life example of this fallacy presented itself to me at the Michelle Rhee protest in Oakland last week. Most elements of the corporate education reform agenda, of which Rhee is the leading proponent, rest on this kind of black-and-white thinking; the specific agenda element that I was reflecting on at this event was charter schools.

Charters are presented as the silver bullet that will fix all that ails our public education system. In Rhee’s rhetoric and in much of the media, we are