Faces of American Education

Andrew Delbanco writes of the “two faces of American education” at NYRB this week. Two? I thought. Only two?

Turns out, Delbanco’s essay is a review of Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools and Michelle Rhee’s Radical: Fighting to Put Students First . He really doesn’t like Rhee, whose book’s main subject, he says, “is herself.”

Ravitch’s title acknowledges that there’s something out there called “private education,” but the debate Delbanco recounts doesn’t pay much mind to them, as he focuses on charter schools, vouchers, and other reform proposals for reforming public education.

The fact that something close to 3% of American children are home-schooled and 9% are at private schools doesn’t register. There are two faces, only two faces.