The big mystery is why Paul Krugman (“The Uneducated American,” ca. Oct. 12th) thinks anyone would believe his notion that education is in decline because not enough money is being thrown into this deep dark hole. In particular, Krugman wants to enrich colleges, places which are basically staffed by Obama loyalists. Sounds like pay-back to me.
Still, it’s promising that Krugman has joined Tom Friedman in lamenting the decline and fall of American education. Now we need to see a blinding epiphany wherein both men acknowledge that money is not even remotely the problem. The big problem is that far-left liberals (people very much like Krugman) have systematically dumbed down the public schools. These people think social justice requires mediocrity for all. This belief is killing the kids and killing the country. (For how to resist, see “38: Saving Public Schools.”)
PS: A week or so later, Tom Friedman repeated the same theme: "Time to fix the schools, too." Great. The Times is attacking what their "progressive" friends have done over the years. I would still argue that we can't make progress unless there's clarity about what went wrong. People calling themselves "educators" deliberately debased "education."
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