I’m getting sick and tired of folks from all sides taking swipes at public education. I taught special education (mostly middle school) for 28 years and worked in an after-school program for four more afterwards and I can tell you that education has always suffered from just one thing: too many people who have never taught in a classroom a day in their lives telling teachers how to teach. Nothing drives me crazier than some half-baked sophist expounding on the dire state of education when, many times, they are exactly the reason why education is in such bad straits.

If you hire an auto mechanic to repair your car, you’re not going to get under the hood with them. If you hire an accountant to do your taxes, you’re not going to bring in another accountant to check their figures. If you go to a doctor, you may seek out a second opinion, but you’re usually pretty sure both are qualified.

Why is it so hard to just let teachers teach?

Bill Maher, whose opinions I usually respect and whose show is the only place where left and right can meet and have a civil discussion these days, has come down hard on educational institutions, calling them “diploma mills” and lecturing them on their political stances. A recent guest on his show blamed the left for indoctrinating students to a form of Marxism where everything is seen through the prism of........

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