TER in print: I review Kopp and Kirp.

In the American Prospect this month, I review new books by Wendy Kopp and David Kirp. Anyone who reads me regularly or knows me personally is well aware that I think the polarization of the conversation on education reform is not just annoying—it is not especially reflective of many thinkers.

Sorry if that stance bores you. But at least I am consistent: My first published piece, on the Wall Street Journal Europe op-ed page when I interned there in 1991, reflected a similar resistance to false dichotomies, in that case about college campus reaction to the first Gulf War. (Nope, not Googlable.)

Both of these books stand on their own as good ideas. They do not contradict each other, or cancel each other out. Let’s not act as if they do.