But you make it sound like all would be well if only the meddling foundations would just leave the schools alone. These do-gooders did not develop in a vacuum.

But you make it sound like all would be well if only the meddling foundations would just leave the schools alone. These do-gooders did not develop in a vacuum. And while personally I think the crisis in American education has been overblown, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the job the public schools are doing. You ask Bill Gates to pay reparations -- what of the public school administrators who have presided over the failing schools of our inner cities? Will they pay as well? Finally, in your quote from Barken, she describes problems which have already been seen in public schools, and offers no indication why corruption, demoralization and failure would be worse for the meddling of the foundations.