I saw this article coauthored by Joel Klein and Al Sharpton entitled "Charter Schools Can Close the Education Gap."

I thought, hm, will I find myself agreeing with Rev. Sharpton? Until I read the first paragraph, and saw, "Public education is supposed to be the great equalizer in America."

If he's talking about making quality education available to everyone, (and by "everyone", I mean legal residents of the United States), fine. But what I am reading into it is the concept of promoting mediocrity.

As I continue reading, I find that a lot of stuff makes sense--like not bowing to the will of teacher unions to protect incompetent teachers. However, they seem to be proposing more Government intervention, more national standards that sound a lot like "No Child Left Behind." I have mixed feelings about "No Child Left Behind," incidentally. Anyway, I have little confidence that lawmakers can improve education whatever their good intentions. Especially if they site studies I can't agree with. Like the following:

"Study after study shows that good teachers have, by far, the highest impact on student learning. "The single most important factor in determining [student] achievement is not the color of [a student's] skin or where they come from," you stated on the campaign trail. "It's not who their parents are or how much money they have -- it's who their teacher is." We couldn't agree more. To close the achievement gap, start with a three-word solution: Teachers, teachers, teachers."

What studies? Can they be more specific?

I'm not arguing against teachers necessarily, good teachers have had a profound impact on my life. However, I've had a lot of bad teachers too. What has been the most important factor in my achievement (I'm going out on a limb by assuming that I fall into the "successful" category) is my parents--and they raised me without a lot of money, too. More and more, I see the government trying to take the responsibility of raising children away from the parents.