Bob Herbert can usually be counted on to dispense columns that are either off-base or banal. His latest piece is certainly banal (check out the title); but it's none too credible, either, because Herbert is calling for a "wholesale transformation of the public school system" that, were some politician to actually advance it, he, yes he, Herbert, would surely denounce. Not to say that the ideas he touts (removing bad teachers from the classroom before they get tenure; replicating great schools such as KIPP) aren't good ones. We're all for ‘em. But isn't this the same columnist who consistently writes that what schools need most is money (see here, among others)? Isn't this the same columnist who chastises education reformers whenever they ruffle some feathers (see here), and the one who seems to think race is the most important part of schooling? Herbert has advocated for the "status quo" in education for years; the "wholesale transformation" he wants (this week, at least) can't happen without sacrificing some of his own sacred cows. Maybe he's had a conversion experience recently--but that hope is probably off-base itself.
"Our Schools Must Do Better," by Bob Herbert, New York Times, October 2, 2007