The Great Unraveling

How the bipartisan center of education reform was destroyed by extremes on both sides, leaving student achievement—the only thing that matters—as the biggest casualty

My journey as a propagandist for student achievement has taken me through all sides of the political terrain. I had only one compass that guided me through: an unwavering focus on children's achievement. Not methods. Not ideology. Not political allegiance.

Just one question: How are the children?

The truth hurts most when it comes late. And the truth is this: both sides of our education wars have lost their way.

If we truly care about America’s youth, as we all say we do, then we must find urgent clarity about their intellectual development.

If I ever walked the reform path it was because I believed it led to justice. My people spoke of closing gaps, lifting the poor, opening doors. Noble words. Clear aims. The bipartisan core felt righteous—resources tied to performance, options for families trapped in sputtering schools. We built charter schools, magnet programs, even voucher systems. All in service of those who had the least.

That movement is dead now. It died when both sides abandoned the bullseye’s center for the righteous outer rings. Choice vs. Cash square off. Students be damned.

I typed a lot of characters spelling out how the progressive sin came first. That camp refused to see address schools that neglect some children while over-serving others. When confronted with data showing cruel disparities in achievement, untenable differences in outcomes, they attacked the measuring stick. They questioned the motives of those who gathered evidence, forgetting data has always been a novel weapon for civil rights champs. They blamed poverty, race, disability—anything but the system they defended. Their compassion masks condescension: "Those kids can't learn because of who they are."

They defended mediocrity with moral superiority.

They confused inputs with outcomes, spending with learning, process with progress.

The slogans flow easily: "fully funded" and "smaller classes." Bumper-sticker wisdom that ignores education's true science.

I was good at pointing to these things. I’ve softened on that line of attack now that progressives are the only firewall against the conservative side is zombified by a MAGA version of 28 Days Later.

The right-wing vanguard has answered us with their own betrayal. They abandoned accountability for pure privatization. They made a new - but familiar - claim: forget the poor and minorities. Court the comfortable. Help them flee not from school failure, but from diversity itself.

This was not reform. This was convenient retreat.

All hail Education Savings Accounts! Never has a penny been so shiny. So inescapably alluring and well-funded that Democrats-In-Name-Only are using Republican vocoders to support the new vouchers. They say these programs are inevitable, so we might as well adapt. For the record, adaptation is surrender. Just ask Jim Crow.

Yet not all conservatives share this vision. Some understand that data matters, that assessment reveals truth. Accountability could never be unnecessary, and no, a school’s popularity contents with parents isn’t a replacement for hard numbers. The Bush conservatives and their educational allies were always clear on this. They understood that choice without accountability is the best route to achievement anarchy . They knew that standards matter. Some still fight for this balanced view.

Funders, the check writers of the “movement,” what can we say about them? When George Floyd's name stopped trending they were all too happy to scrub “equity” from their naming conventions. The allies were revealed to be opportunists. Equity was marketing strategy.

I was fooled. We were all fooled.

My solace is in the enduring fact that he fundamentals of effective educational policy remain eternal. Quality teaching matters. Learning must be demonstrable. Instruction requires evidence. Curriculum demands rigor. Assessment reveals truth. Data drives decisions. Public reporting ensures accountability. All must serve continuous improvement.

I care nothing for your political tribe.

Whether you champion increased funding or micro-schools, teacher pay reform or education savings accounts, desegregation or character education—show me the evidence.

Show me the children thriving.

Show me how draining millions from quasi-accountable systems into irresponsibly unregulated private markets does anything other than create educational ghettos for the poor and premium pathways for the rich. Banking deregulation taught us this lesson.

Must we learn it again through our children?

Should we sell our people on the PayDay loans of education?

Hell no.

To the left, we must insist that when systems fail children systematically—especially poor children, minority children, children with disabilities—we cannot hide behind funding formulas or union contracts. The student is the core constituent, not the adult employees, however essential they may be.

To the right, we must resist the rebranding of division as choice, prejudice as parental rights, segregation as personalization. Clever words hiding old sins. A system that works equally well for all children is the goal.

True reform still beckons. Not the counterfeit kind that enriches the already advantaged while abandoning the struggling. Not the status quo that serves adults better than children. But reform that makes the least become the most. Education remains the great equalizer, if we let it be.

When the pendulum swings back—and it will—we must not be seduced again by duplicitous funders or their counterfeit compassion. Nor can we retreat to comfortable slogans that ignore uncomfortable truths.

There's a cost to calling out both sides. There's a price for rejecting easy allegiances. But if that price buys us an honest movement focused on real education for all children—especially those who need it most—then it's a bargain.

Achievement is the only goal. Achievement requires evidence. Methods matter less than outcomes. Politics must yield to proof.

How are the children?

That's the only question worth asking. That's the reform worth fighting for. That's the education our children deserve.

Not with anger, but with clarity. Not with bitterness, but with resolve. The work continues.