Never let it be said that I don't present viewpoints that conflict with my own (in fact, sometimes I seem to do little else than present – and then rebut – Ravitch, etc.).  Here's a mind-bogglingly foolish column in which USA Today columnist DeWayne Wickham argues, essentially, that we shouldn't allow charters or close down bad schools because we need parents to get really mad and these actions will only appease them.  I am NOT making this up!

For too many black children, public school systems oppress more than educate. They place students in underachieving, poorly funded schools. And when parents demand better, what they get is steam control — a way to vent their anger, not fix the problem.

In New York City, charter schools — which have room for only 4% of the city's 1 million public school students — are steam control. They keep the revolt over poor performing public schools from becoming a revolution by distracting parents with the slender reed of hope of getting their child into a better school.

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Despite black parent anger in New York City, NAACP is right

DeWayne Wickham USA TODAY columnist

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-06-14-NAACP-is-right-in-New-York_n.htm