You may be aware of a recent article published in the Washington Post.  The article was called, “How to Fix Our Schools: A Manifesto”.  The article was written by a group of well-intentioned but apparently uninformed or misinformed school superintendents including Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and other education leaders.  I say uninformed because I don’t think that they intentionally lied in writing the manifesto, but they are clearly wrong on several of the ‘facts’ that they cite to bolster their opinions.  The only part of the manifesto that we might agree with is the closing paragraph.  In it, they say:

“For the wealthiest among us, the crisis in public education may still seem like someone else’s problem, because those families can afford to choose something better for their kids. But it’s a problem for all of us — until we fix our schools, we will never fix the nation’s broader economic problems. Until we fix our schools, the gap between the haves and the have-nots will only grow wider and the United States will fall further behind the rest of the industrialized world in education, rendering the American dream a distant, elusive memory.”

To read the full manifesto, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100705078.html

For a well-reasoned response that details the false statements in the manifesto, go to http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/manifesto-should-be-resignatio.html

The degree of recognition and frustration with the many problems associated with today’s K-12 education system in America continue to grow.  And every time I read another article, I am more encouraged about the work we are doing.  We have by far the best solution available to this complex issue.  In the words of Victor Hugo, “There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”