Deborah Meier

We could really use your help, Ed. The battle between Chester Upland School District and Gov. Corbett is just a glimpse into the strategic dismantling taking place across the entirety of the American public school system.

I used to think that Barack Obama would follow Abraham Lincoln in bringing us together. I read he adopted a balanced, "team of rivals" approach to foreign policy and domestic challenges. Now, I think I know why his education policy is the big exception.

On Saturday, thousands of educators and parents rallied at the grassroots Save Our Schools March on Washington, D.C. Education heavyweights all took the microphone, but it was Matt Damon whose closing speech brought down the house.

Deborah Meier is considered the founder of the modern small-schools movement. She founded the Central Park East Schools, the first of the teacher-led small schools, in East Harlem in 1974.

Before I started teaching, I thought Diane Ravitch was wrong. But I quickly learned she was right, and we can not build the bricks of conceptual understanding without the straw of knowledge.

Talking about race should be made easier by acknowledging the obvious fact that structural inequities are far more damaging than culture in perpetuating generational poverty.

Before long our scorched earth politics will again be rejected, and public schools will again become forces in creating an educated citizenry.

Shouldn't people bold enough to call themselves "school reformers" be familiar with some of the literature on the subject?