WaPo’s Strauss fact checks the NY Times Mag and Brill’s “last stand.”

The Reformers (“Reformers,” the “de-reformers,” the “so-called reformers”) went all dewy-eyed over Steven Brill’s less than brilliant anti-union hackery in Sunday’s NY Times Magazine.

But the ever-vigilant Washington Post Answer Sheet columnist, Valerie Strauss was fact checking. Gosh. A reporter doing fact checking. A hell of a concept.

The truth may not be as compelling, but it has the virtue of being, well, true. Some charter schools are excellent and work wonders with kids. Some do an average job, and some are awful. There is no evidence that charter schools are the silver bullet that will “save” public education.

Traditional public schools have to educate every student who is eligible to enroll. They can’t counsel students out, as many charters do, or select who they want. This is not an excuse for bad schools. But it is part of the reason that the job of the traditional public school system, which still educates about 95 percent of all schoolkids, is far more complicated than many reformers today would have you believe.

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