An Independent Critique

The Admiral just unloaded on the Pittsburgh Promise.

The post resembles an earlier post he had written on the subject, but this one is far superior.

This new post is also much, much longer. The original post was plenty long.

The new post is about sixteen screen-lengths long, including charts and graphs. The first four screen-lengths or so are boring.

The next twelve screen-lengths are hot, as it were. The Comet is raising the News Alert Level to whichever shade is half a grade higher than what it was this afternoon.

Excerpts:

The Pittsburgh Promise, on the other hand, has no direct effect at all on the quality of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Indeed, excellent public schools aren't even one of the goals of the Pittsburgh Promise. The Promise will, instead...

And:

Instead of bribing people to accept something that they belive to be an inferior product, it might make more sense to do things the old-fashioned way. Why not provide an excellent product, and let the attraction occur naturally?

And also:

But it won't be the wealthy parents who move into town to take advantage of the Pittsburgh Promise. Those who are deeply concerned with educational quality aren't likely to be tempted to leave Mount Lebanon or Quaker Valley. The Promise will only provide money for a select group of local and state-run universities, so the parents who have their hearts set on Harvard or who are praying for Princeton won't be tempted by it.

There is a lot to ponder in the article, but it is nice finally to be moving the conversation forward.