Beware of "The Best and the Brightest"

Don't get too excited by all the Ivy Leaguers ( Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp, Arne Duncan, Barack Obama etc) lined up behind Education Reform. Just remember that Ivy League scholars provided the intellectual rationale behind the Jim Crow Laws ( (John Burgess, Woodrow Wilson and the Dunning School) and that Ivy League efficiency experts ( McGeorge Bundy, Robert McNamara etc) provided the rationale for the use of American ground soldiers in the Vietnam War. Take a close look at the policies they are promoting- school closings, preferential treatment of charter schools, universal testing, test based teacher evaluations. They have to the potential to be every bit as disastrous as the two earlier initiatives supported by "The Best and the Brightest."