I can get so worked up about public schools that I don't appear balanced, so I may need to sit on my hands for this one, but I will say Reform: I'm for it.

I hope this triggers a real and national discussion . . . which gets further than the environmental movement has so far in creating meaningful national legislation.

There is no secret here. As long as we differentiate school funding and hence quality based on locale, our schools will be dreadful overall. And equality of opportunity will be something we only talk about.

One hurdle is convincing the Randroids that education and healthcare are as vital to national security as a military, police forces, and courts systems. I am a very recent convert to this idea myself, so I have not yet worked out all the kinks in my arguments. (Who says the internet never changed someone's mind?)

Good for you, Ardiril. Speaking as a former limited government, limited taxation type myself, I can't remember what got me started changing my mind . . .maybe seeing for myself as a grownup what happens to people without access to educational resources or health care.

I am not at all ready to extend those to fur'ners, but I have long supported lower barriers and streamlined processing of immigration procedures. Someone's gotta pay to keep my social security solvent.

"For decades, the conversation about our schools has been the preserve of the education Establishment—and the result has been a system that, with few exceptions, runs the gamut from mediocre to calamitous. "

This. This this, my God, this.