Education Next is a conservative journal that is strongly committed to school choice and high-stakes testing. Its editorial board (of which I was a member until six or seven years ag) shares the view that American public education is failing and in need of radical reform.

Education Next just released its opinion poll about the state of the schools, and Peter Greene noticed a startling finding. Very few Americans know of any failing schools!

How can this be?

He writes:

“There are certainly aspects of these data that are unbragworthy. But it is still worth noting that the reformsters narrative of terrible schools staffed with horrible teachers is not what most folks see– certainly not the level of disaster needed to really jumpstart a good round of disaster capitalist roulette. Perhaps that’s why some folks have to work so very hard to create the impression of educational disaster.”