Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network writes in Salon that voters are increasingly disenchanted with the bipartisan Bush-Obama education policies of high-stakes testing, Common Core, and privatization.
He points out that the attacks on public education are not playing well at all in the political arena. The overwhelming majority of parents are very happy with their local public schools and respect their teachers. The public is beginning to see through the lies they have been told about their schools. So much of the rhetoric of the “reformers” sounds appealing and benign, if not downright inspirational, but it ends up as nonstop testing, the closing of local public schools, merit pay, union-busting, the enrichment of multinational corporations, and standardization.
Bryant predicts that Democrats will suffer at the polls for their slavish espousal of hard-right GOP doctrine.
He writes:
“The only overriding constants? People generally like their local schools, trust their children’s teachers and think public school and teachers should get more money. Wonder when a politician will back that!
“Many observers, including journalists at The Wall Street Journal, have accurately surmised that the American public is currently deeply divided on education policy. But that analysis barely scratches the surface.
“Go much deeper and you find that the “new liberal consensus” that Adam Serwer wrote about in Mother Jones, which propelled Obama into a second term, believes in funding the nation’s public schools but has little to no allegiance to Obama’s education reform policies.
“Outside of the elite circles of the Beltway and the very rich, who continue to be the main proponents of these education policies, it is getting harder and harder to discern who exactly is the constituency being served by the reform agenda.
“Most Americans do not see any evidence that punitive measures aimed at their local schools are in any way beneficial to their children and grandchildren. In fact, there’s some reasonable doubt whether the president himself understands it.
So is Arne Duncan making education policy on his own? Or is the policy agenda of the Obama administration indistinguishable from that of rightwing Republicans like Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Mike Pence, and Tom Corbett?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Long past time for Jeff and everyone else to drop the naivete’ that the somehow “good” Democrats erred and that all of these nasty things are somehow just the GOP’s agenda.
It’s this kind of sloppy and illogical thinking that has us where we are today. What we are seeing with Education Policy (and all else) is a direct result of both big business parties doing the bidding of their masters on Wall St. This is quite well documented and all of those too obtuse to understand this need to wake up and fast. The truck that came at you in 2008 and 2012 did so on purpose- it swerved towards you not away. This is important to understand for it is coming back at you in 2016.
The “doctrine” that Bryant speaks about is not a “GOP doctrine”, it is a doctrine embraced by both parties and executed more skillfully by the more effective evil Democrats.
Supporting Democrats is a serious political disorder, like alcoholism or returning again & again to an abusive spouse who repeatedly lies to you. It’s easy to fall off the wagon, to make excuses & rationalizations for it.
Even many whose views are developed enough to recognize such truths as the fundamental rottenness of the 2-party system & the complicity of Democrats in all of the Republicans’ major crimes, are still unable to draw the logical consequences of these insights. (Those so naive that they still conceive of Democrats as being the “opponents” of Republicans are another case altogether.)
The central point is this: capitalist society permits the Democrats to be one of the 2 allowed parties for a very definite reason. It’s not because the Democrats “serve the people.” It’s because in a subtle but effective way, they help the capitalists keep the populace under control by providing them with the illusion of possible change. TPTB don’t want the people “served.” They want them managed, or controlled.
It is the job, the central social function of the Democrats to always be dangling before the people’s noses vague pseudo-hints of possible change, so as to keep them from bolting from bourgeois politics altogether. It is the Democrats’ intention to never deliver meaningful change, but rather to keep dangling hints of it alluringly forever. This produces control — a populace habituated to remain safely within the lines required by ruling class interests.
This is why the Democrats NEVER paint a picture of US history that’s the slightest bit accurate — they want a brainwashed population every bit as much as the Republicans do. This is why they NEVER are willing to set forth an honest socioeconomic analysis of why things are as they are — they much prefer that people not understand such things.
As long as a large chunk of voters can be deceived by the seemingly “nicer guy” act of the Democrats, there is no hope whatever of coming to grips with the core problems of our society. The most dangerous trends — environmental destruction, grotesque social inequality, and an uncontrollable propaganda/war machine — cannot even be approached within the framework of bourgeois politics, because they all serve ruling class interests. This is what is really being protected, when people opt to support Democrats just because they seem less blatantly cruel on TV.
Well, sort of.
Progressives, and that includes many Democrats, did push quite hard for the civil and voting rights acts…and it’s rather hard to argue that those pieces of legislation, and the social and political progress they spawned, were not “meaningful change.”
Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws”–Mayer Rothschild.
“In fact, there’s some reasonable doubt whether the president himself understands [his administration’s policies]. So is Arne Duncan making education policy on his own?”
Good question.
President Obama is an extremely intelligent man who brags about knowing more about policy than his “expert” advisers. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Also, the premise of this article is false: so-called education reform is not a GOP agenda, but an Overclass agenda, which their captive Democrats have embraced.
He’s not one bit intelligent. What is he is arrogant to the nth degree.
There is a big difference.
he and is should be reversed
Susan,
I’m willing to compromise. Can we then agree on glib and clever?
Continuing to stigmatize the bad education policy of some republicans as “right wing” confirms that Democrats don’t want real solutions. Political posturing trumps reasonable problem solving. Teddy Kennedy led the way with NCLB. Don’t avoid responsibility for mixing your own kool aid. Anti capitalist rhetoric feeds the stereotype of “commie teachers.” And many are that mindless. In such a context, why shouldn’t they be ” reformed” out of their jobs?
I don’t know that anyone who has opposed many of these so-called education reforms is “avoiding responsibility for mixing our own kool-aid.”
Truth be told, I don’t know that we had a choice except to mix that kool-aid. As Bryant’s article makes clear, Democrats have been unsupportive of public education. But Republicans haven’t exactly been our friends. So who do we vote for?
Also, get off the anti-capitalist mythology that you’ve espoused here before. I don’t know a single teacher in my multi-high school district that promotes communism or overtly criticizes capitalism. Might there be discussions regarding ethics and capitalism? Sure, because there are stories of corruption and the effect it has on markets (which is part of examining capitalism). But it never devolves into capitalism is bad in every way. Our econ teacher here has a crush on John Stossel for crying out loud.
Is there ever a discussion of the way government corruption and the way government distorts markets? What are we to do? The Republicans have not been your friends? If you understood your own best interests better, they would seem to you more like friends.
So much of the government action in the last 100 years has been anti-capitalist, and even more anti-constitutional, that saying members of the system don’t criticize capitalism, but as long as they participate in bloated government at any level, their silence implies consent and self-interest.
The fundamental unacknowledged FACT is that all wealth requires production. To take without sensitivity to that fact often makes defenses of the public sector hollow. Think Illinois. Even Rahm Emmanuel is supporting defined contribution pensions.
Until YOU do, I can’t take you seriously.
Whenever people start throwing out the terms “commie” or “socialist” I question the validity of their position. Too many Americans simply accept an authoritative source and let Fox News fill in the extensive gaps. It then becomes a mindless cult where leaders are never questioned or held accountable. Anyone daring to challenge the status quo are squinted at with suspicion as “them”. We’ve hopefully moved beyond inquisitions and McCarthy-ism, but there is always that danger. If America is to remain strong, we need rational, open minds.
The teachers I work with are not “commies” or subversive. They just enter the classroom everyday to deal with family crisis, teen depression, sneezing children, suicides, angry boys and mean girls, parents losing jobs and breakfasts being skipped. They handle drug addiction one day, yoga pants and Snapchat the next. The teachers give a bit of themselves each year and can be consumed by student cheers and tears. They are always looking to reach the child and are endlessly reading journals, attending conferences, and trying new ideas. In reality, I have yet to meet a teacher who sees punitive testing as anywhere near effective. Nor are unproven standards being viewed as valuable. Certainly, I have never seen a perfect teachers’ union, but I have seen enough corporate incompetence to fill a book. The is a reason Dilbert is excellent comedy. Do we abolish all companies because of this?
I know you are just trolling and nothing will ever change your mind. I’m done responding to your posts. Most people stuck in your ideology never move from a position and start spewing “conservative” talking points from some common script, revert to poor middle school social behavior, or post endless links after googling for five minutes.
But there is always hope. If you ever want to try some meta-thinking, read “The Righteous Mind” by Haidt. It is a fairly balanced study of both far right and left thinking – “righteous” being a neutral term. Good luck.
That’s what’s so intriguing, that so many are blind to their own political irrationality. Your dismissal of Fox shows your own leftism. I’ll look for the book, but the fact that main stream American thinking has been stigmatized as “far right” in the society today is a measure of how socialist and communist the elite establishment has become. Amazing.
I’m sorry, but NCLB was GWB’s baby. It took shape in Houston where Rod Paige’s so-called “Texas Miracle” inspired Bush to adopt a similar plan on a national level. Sandy Kress, one of W’s first senior advisors, lobbied for NCLB and is now working for Pearson. After NCLB was signed into law without public hearings, it was revealed Paige cooked the books and there was no miracle yet it still exists today.
Exactly my point. The Democrats, led by Teddy “Chapaquidick” Kennedy swallowed the whole nonsensical thing hook, line, and sinker. Even I, with my very elementary statistical training, know that you can’t defeat the bell curve. All you can do is hold “tryouts.”
No doubt in my mind that Obama knows very well that financial connections with Gates & Co. on the back of teachers and children is His EdReform Policy! Poor Arne, he serves Obama well with his dribble on and off the court. Both will be well compensated in the future. Their financial futures are secure & close to lottery winning status.
Neither has any conflict with what is going on in our schools, homes and communities.
Major disappointment! I did tweet out many times during his last campaign: Obama does not deserve the Teacher Vote! He never did!
Ruthless!
Why do people insist on letting Obama off the hook? He always WAS a tool of Wall Street and has been up to his eyeballs in right-wing education “reform” since his days on the board of the Joyce Foundation–clear back in the 1990s.
In Ohio, we began using Proficiency Tests in the 1990s. These were supposed to be diagnostic or formative. This was quickly changed and morphed into more punitive OAT and OAA tests.
From the begining, the truth was that the city schools and isolated rural that were struggling needed some kind of major intervention. The focus and expenditures needed to be on those students, not on the schools throughout entire state.
Cincinnati does have a community outreach plan in place that does address the issues that Diane advocates. There will be a convention in April but I don’t yet know the details. They embrace health, dental, emotional and educational needs.
Thanks Diane! One clarification, if I may: My comment “In fact, there’s some reasonable doubt whether the president himself understands it” originally contained a link the editors at Salon decided not to include. Here it is:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/does-obama-understand-race-to-the-top–ravitch/2012/01/31/gIQAUnI7eQ_blog.html
Basically, the article linked to states that Obama’s public declarations of concern over testing beg the question does he even understand his administration’s own policies.
‘So is Arne Duncan making education policy on his own?’ Sounds plausible. David Browich wrote an interesting & insightful article on the Obama presidency (see link below) It’s not about education, per say, but about his leadership style. It helped me understand more deeply why Obama has allowed Duncan free reign in enacting his bad education policies. However, I continue to be baffled at Obama’s public embrace of Jeb Bush & Rhee’s toxic blend of public ed-destruction.
Bromowich highlights some of Obama’s decisions over several critical events of his presidency. His laissez-faire approach to Duncan seems fundamental to the approach he takes with all of his cabinet members. Obama avoids taking charge or blame for difficult policy decisions by rising above the fray of political ‘carnival barkers’ (Obama’s own words for Republicans during the health care debates.) He left Sebelious hanging by a thread when the ACA roll-out was botched. ‘Leading from behind’ is the posture he & his handlers sold leading up to the difficult NATO talks. If we are waiting for Obama to rein in Duncan, we’ll be waiting for Godot.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175816/tomgram%3A_david_bromwich%2C_the_leader_obama_wanted_to_become_and_what_became_of_him/
Dennis Van Roeckel, the NEA president, in an address to the California Teachers Association last year, revealed that he buys the narrative that our schools are broken. Addressing the Common Core discontents (like Diane), he asked, then what do YOU propose? The implication was clear: the status quo is indefensible. Public schools are broken
By supporting Common Core, the unions can look like they’re doing SOMETHING to fix our broken schools.
I say, better an imperfect status quo than a disastrous new order. The Common Core has some good points –like insisting on a knowledge-building curriculum –but the good parts are being overlooked, and the whole enchilada is likely to be eclipsed by the dubious-validity, curriculum-narrowing SBAC/PARCC tests. These could wreak major harm on our schools and kids.
To be fair to Van Roeckel, many urban public schools DO seem broken, and it’s hard to explain to lay people that it’s not the teachers’ fault.
Van Roeckel needs to go.
Weingarten too…
“So is Arne Duncan making education policy on his own?”
If he is, then he has a ghostwriter by the name of Penny Pritzker. With her new gig as Secretary of Commerce, I’m sure she is looking out for her “reformer” billionaire friends.
A billionaire who has Arne Duncan’s ear:
http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mjd45mgjg/penny-pritzker-arne-duncan-2/
I live in IL and I voted republican for the first time in my life yesterday, to support Dillard for governor (sadly not all my co-workers did). The democrats are already suffering..between Rahm, Arnie and Obama, these Chicago politicians have turned America into the country of graft and coruption that Chicago already is.
Cary,
Check out this wonderfully-reported and -written description of Republican Chris Christie’s graft. It’s from the New Republic, which has a lot of good writers on its staff –I wonder what kind of schools produced these writers?:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117066/christies-stronger-storm-jersey-shore-post-sandy-ad-cover
Good for you.
I, too, pulled an R ballot and voted for Dillard. A Republican teacher said he voted for Rauner because he didn’t want to be a selfish teacher, and that Rauner (who BTW admires Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker) would be the best candidate to keep job-creating corporations in Illinois. WTF ?? Corporations and the wealthy are sitting on $2 trillion + in cash,but decent paying American jobs continue to be elusive. Meanwhile, Democratic Governor Quinn,along with the D-controlled General Assembly, decimated our modest pensions. Rauner will go full-force Walker on teachers. In Illinois,we have no real choice for governor.
In 2010, Gallup did a survey and reported the results with this headline: American’s Views of Public Schools Still Far Worse Than Parents’
Almost 80% of parents had a positive opinion of the public schools their children attended, but the public’s opinion of the nation’s public schools (their children didn’t attend) was only 18% positive.
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html
I wonder why this is so? Duh!
Involved parents who know what’s going on in the school their children attend and who are willing to fill out a survey tend to think the public school their kids attend is okay but the problem must be with all of those other public schools.
Why?
Because the corporate owned media never stops with the cherry-picked propaganda telling the public repeatedly how the public schools are failing, teachers are lazy, teachers are incompetent and the teacher unions are corrupt—and the billionaire oligarchs have been doing this for more than thirty years starting with the Walton family in the 1970s and adding more billionaires as the years went by until the vultures from the hedge fund industry joined in because they smell the money—tax payer money.
When I was still teaching at Nogales High School in La Puente, the school ranked low on the API scale compared to the rest of the high schools in the state (due to poverty and street gang culture) but the parents who filled out the survey that was sent home rated the school a bit higher than the 2010 average for the nation.
Why?
Because Nogales and its teachers were doing everything humanly possible to teach their children with the time and resources available and involved parents knew this because their children benefited from all of this effort from teachers.
Uninvolved parents, not so much but then they don’t fill out the survey because they aren’t involved. Duh, again.
Those who gripe the most and push for reform base it on the so-called world ranking and obvious failure of teachers. The don’t know anything but so-called test comparisons. If you tell them that the data is skewed, they say you are making excuses.
True, because they’ve been brainwashed to think that way. A perfect example is one of the regular critics here who goes by the name of Harlan. He’s a biased, brainwashed far right echo chamber who sounds like the usual conservative talk show host. Anyone who throws out the “liberal” term to stereotype everyone who belongs to the Democratic Party or disagrees with them often fits this profile.
Anyone aware of how politics works and the demographics of each political party knows that the far right (known as tea party people) and far left (known as liberals) are extremists on the fringes of each political party.
When work gets done in Congress, it’s usually done by the moderates in each party who are more than willing to reach across the aisle and work together.
Here’s an interesting study from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press on Trends in Party Affiliation. If Harlan chimes in, I will ignore him. Debating him is like talking to a wall with a tape recorder that keeps repeating the same mantra. For sure, if he reads this study, he’ll cherry pick the facts to support his biased beliefs.
In 2012, only 12% of Democrats were considered liberal while 13% were moderate and 6% conservative. Harlan belongs to the other end of this scale. He belongs to the 17% of the Republican party knows as Conservatives on the far right.
If you scroll down to the end of the study, you’ll discover that more Republicans are critical of their party’s performance than Democrats because the far right has basically highjacked the party and loudly dominates it with threats and name calling. The comments Harlan leaves on this site are perfect examples of what I’m talking about.
http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-education-spending-per-pupil-data.html
There are at least 4 people thst post here who I have tried to ignore. I don’t even read when I see their names because the posts are modified versions of previous posts.
Once I recognize the bias and the deaf, dumb and blind wall their ignorance hides behind, I fight the urge to respond and delete instead. No amount of facts, logic or evidence will budge them from their thinking. People who think like these few are the grunts of future dictators and they will gladly destroy democracy waving the flag of democracy.
I find it to be disingenuous more than anything. Asking tangential questions, asking for links that they should be capable of finding, etc. If this is their idea of “leading from behind,” it is failing miserably. I don’t wish to engage with a wild goose chase that ultimately resembles a dog chasing its tail for no other purpose than “they can”.
Instead of engaging in a logical debate supported by valid evidence and links to the primary source evidence, asking questions that introduces a new topic is a logical fallacy to divert the debate into an area where they can make it look like they know what they are talking about and you don’t.
And even if you counter the new topic, they will just switch by asking another question that has nothing to do with the new topic being debated. This is a common-tactic of conservative talk show hosts who have the power of the disconnect button when they want to cut off a caller. It’s time for us to disconnect from the Harlans of the world. Let them rant in isolation. Their worst enemy lives between their ears.
I guess if they started their own blogs even they wouldn’t participate with one another. They can’t draw in as victims others who wish to distract. That is why they come to other blogs to disrupt. It is hard to talk to a mirror image and get a wanted reaction.
Among authors these types of people are known as Trolls and they use the same tactics. What these Trolls don’t know is that Diane has a WordPress blog and every comment left for her posts comes with an IP address that can be pinged and traced back close to its source. With each IP address, we have an 80% chance of getting within 25 miles of the location of the computer that sent the comment and by pinging the IP address we may also discover who they pay that allows them to get on the Internet. With that information and a court order, they may be unmasked.
With an IP address all one has to do is go to Google and search for an “IP lookup”, enter the IP address and ping it. Perfectly legal.
When I was attacked by a flock of Trolls on my Blog, I pinged all their IP addresses and then reported the results of the pings on my Blog in addition to making their IP addresses public. That’s when the Trolls stopped leaving comments on my Blog.
I even traced one Troll to a remote area in the poorest province of China who was claiming to be a disabled American veteran. The next time this Troll left a comment, they had moved more than a thousand miles across China from the previous location. I reported that location too. Then they stopped leaving comments on my Blog.
I never have quite grasped the concept of “troll.” I don’t just go by the name of Harlan. That actually is my name, which I took to posting at Diane’s request.
Perhaps I should not have, if Lloyd is going to get personal. For Lloyd to equate me with his China harassers is just an error. I’m not hiding.
I see personal attacks as avoidance of debate over the actual issues and a tacit admission that my arguments cannot be answered. The effort to silence someone by stigmatization is the usual result of being without sound arguments.
P.S. I never post links as part of an argument.
Harlan, I appreciate your using your real name. Many readers enjoy jousting with you.
Yes, yes, yes. Lately Democratic operatives have been moaning and groaning about lack of excitement among their voters. Supposedly this is a law of nature. Democrats just don’t get excited about midterms. Yet, “school reform” is demobilizing important elements of that base vote. This is one of the most vibrant web sites around these days, and unfortunately, we have to fight not only the GOP but also our “own” party – from President Obama to Arne Duncan to Rahm Emanuel to Pat Quinn (who couldn’t wait to make Paul Vallas his Lt. Gov. Running mate, within days of Vallas being run out of Bridgeport, CT on a rail).
Stop doing things to harm your base voters. What a concept! Maybe then we’d vote. Don’t you realize you’re going to need every vote you can get?
i am currently a registered Democrat who voted for Obama twice only because he was the lesser of two evils. I will no longer be doing this. I am seriously considering changing my party affiliation to an independent or third party, and only voting for third party candidates. I know this is viewed as almost akin to self-disenfdranchisement due to the fact that third party candidates almost never win elections. However, I can no longer support a party that has cynically co-opted Republican education policy and calls its own.
Darren, you have articulated the position I take as well. I am proud to count myself as a lifelong Liberal Democrat, but I am sickened by the policies that pander to corporate interests, and pay lip-service to the promotion of equity among poor students, as well as the myth of social mobility. The odds are stacked against them, and no amount of high-stakes testing is going to improve their lot. Democrats have acquiesced, have allowed private interests to run rough-shod all over them. And for what? To get to kiss the ring of Lord Gates? To gain the favor of hedge-fund managers and “philanthropists” in NYC and get some huge campaign contributions? (Cuomo!) I cannot support Democratic incumbents or candidates that have chosen to take this path. They have accepted the false premise that CC$$ represents an improvement of standards, a “raising the bar”, a guarantee that our children will be “college and career ready”, and be able to “compete in a global marketplace” with “21st century skills”….all without questioning or researching these assertions!!!! They are so eager to believe the buzz-phrases. They are failing at their basic fiduciary obligations to represent parents and to make the best policy decisions possible to help our children.
You do that. That way you help a Republican win, maybe even a, gulp, tea party patriot. I’ll take my gifts where I find them. I know it would absolutely kill you vote Republican. I want you to live.
It is the “centrist” Democrats that “erred” and embraced the public education “crisis” myth. Not all Dems were so myopic and cowardly.
But if the public education cynics “erred,” guess who else engaged in some seriously sloppy decision-making and judgment?
If you guessed the so-called “leaders” of the AFT and NEA you’d be correct.
And if you thought of ASCD – which took a three-year Bill Gates grant and sold out to the Common Core standards – you’d be right too.
And if you by chance figured the National School Boards Association, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of Secondary School Principles, and the American Association of School Administrators,well, that would be correct as well. Those groups recently issued a joint statement supporting the Common Core (but delaying its massive testing requirements).
That statement made clear that public education in the United States is in deeper trouble than many thought. The problem is not just the corporate “reformers” and their allies, And it is NOT only a matter of pedagogy or teaching personnel, or curriculum.
It’s a very serious lack of leadership.
At the risk of being one of the commenters who says the same thing over and over… I’ll say it again (albeit in a slightly different way): we need a third party that will explicitly oppose privatization in all of its forms, espouse the need for more taxes, and remind voters and the public that government is NOT the problem. We need more government, we need more regulation, and we need more money to pay for it.
I agree with this. There are so many who quote Reagan’s comment about government being “the problem”. We should be so much smarter than this.
People want to believe what they want to be true. People who are against taxes embraced this. People who are also uneducated have been barking on blogs and tv and fb and talk radio using this an excuse to paint the picture they want. They take their tax breaks and loopholes in stride as being deserved but they ignore the fact that without embracing The Commons society is diminished. They are unable to listen to anything that doesn’t fall into a narrow world view. They want it all for themselves.
Guess what? Everyone can’t have it all.
They honestly believe that they are working harder than others and that if the others are on bad times, they should just st work harder. They seem to think that those born into poverty can work harder and get out of poverty.
They believe they have an interpretation of the Constitution that is “the” only interpretation. (I think they missed the lesson on the Supreme Court, not that I agree or understand the reason for Citizens United being acceptable by the SC.)
Then we have the lobbiests who buy off both parties. And the legislators who spend little time working, complain about the wages of those who do, and support candidates who don’t even care about their supporters.
So, yeh, a new party would be refreshing IF it could be effective and WIN.
I would say that government IS the problem and that we need less government, less regulation, and no more taxes.
We need to excise the cancer of neoliberalism from the body politic or this country will die.
I’m starting to think the teaparty might have it right.
I’m thinking that the tea-party has it exactly 96.25% wrong
You must mean 96.25% right. Ted Cruz in 2016!!!!! Yay.
Some parts of the tea party does have it right. Some, of course, are weirdo idiots. But really, it would be better for the country to have a responsible public school system supplemented by a small private school sector. Charters and vouchers open up very big cans of worms. But I despair of the public school systems showing much responsible common sense, and so reluctantly support charters. Now pass me my square of flat cheese so I can nibble it into the shape of a gun. I’ll risk the three day suspension meted out by an overzealous principal. Shuddder. Shudder. Maybe I should stop breathing too, so my carbon dioxide exhalations won’t kill the planet.