The Choice Channel

“David Driscoll should be taking a well-deserved victory lap. Instead, as he sits in his office discussing his impending retirement after an accomplishment-filled run as the state’s education commissioner, Driscoll is sounding alarms. Asked whether US children, growing up in a country that undervalues scholastic achievement and clings to a relatively short school year, can compete with their international peers, he is blunt. ‘No,’ he says. ‘Absolutely not.’ Not the way our educational system is currently configured. Why, if Horace Mann, the father of American education, came back today, ‘there is only one institution he would recognize, and that’s schools,’ Driscoll says.” (10/31/06)