Get Down and Cough it

Get Down and Cough it Up - Again, let me clarify: I've never been the most savage critic of public schools among my fellow Republicans. I was barely a critic at all, until recently. Save the cookie-cutter criticism.

But there are many problems in the public schools, not the least of which is their institutional immunity to real innovation and genuine excellence.

The story of math teacher Jaime Escalante became Stand and Deliver - an excellent movie that dramatized (in suitably Hollywood-ized form) the rise of Escalante's math program.

Jerry Jesness documents the rather-less-publicized fall.