Public Education Hijacked by Privileged Elites

In Public School Efforts, a Common Background: Private EducationBy MICHAEL WINERIP
New York Times
Published: April 17, 2011

Summary: There is one thing that characterizes a surprisingly large number of the people who are transforming public schools: they attended private schools.

Does a private school background give them a much-needed distance and fresh perspective to better critique and remake traditional public schools? Does it make them distrust public schools — or even worse — poison their perception of them? Or does it make any difference?

Presents a "Who's Who" list of education reformers and the elite private school they attended.

Audience: General public.

Key Points: When President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind legislation, he expressed his hope that it would combat the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” Indeed, the law could not have higher expectations: every child in the nation is required to be proficient in math and English by 2014. Schools that do not meet their proficiency goals, which are raised every year, are labeled as failing.

Last month, Mr. Duncan predicted that by the end of this year, 82 percent of schools will miss their goal. At this rate, it is highly likely that in a few years, every single public school in the United States will be labeled a failure.

Relevance: Interesting to see the list of people involved in education reform and their private education roots.