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I was sent a wonderful commentary on "Education Reform" the other day. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/27/888021/-If-you-care-about-public-schools,-does-this-concern-you There are those like Governor Christie who pretend to support public education, all the while acting on what seems to be some personal vendetta against teachers and public schools. Those people are dangerous and they do pose a threat to the public school system. Christie is starving and strangling New Jersey schools-- and then when the students whose program has been dismembered show a decline in success, he will say, "See? Our schools are failing." Perhaps even more dangerous, however, are those philanthropists who -- for whatever reasons -- are supporting the ideas of Arne Duncan and company. Added to the Race to the Top money, the Gates money, the Buffett money, the Walton money, and the money from their other billionaire colleagues have the potential to derail public education for enough time to hurt a lot of kids. I am not suggesting evil intent here -- these guys are simply not educators, they're businessmen. Education and business are in most ways two very different worlds. Diane Ravitch, once a strong proponent of charter schools, high-stakes testing and evaluation of teachers according to students' test scores, has seen the truth about that approach: It doesn't work. (It takes a lot of courage for anyone to say "I was wrong about that" -- even more so for such a well-respected scholar with such a high profile.) She, too, fears for the health and safety of America's tradition of free public education. I wish that New Jerseyans would take a stand against what Christie is doing. New Jersey's public schools are among the finest in the country. It has taken a long time and a lot of hard work to build a good public school system. The governor can join in that effort by supporting public school communities across the state; or, like the bully at the beach, he can kick over the sandcastle that was built by others with care and with thoughtfulness.