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In the week since the New York Times published a conversation on education philanthropy entitled How Many Billionaires Does It Take to Fix a School System, some high-profile bloggers have characterized the piece as an unintentionally sad commentary on the state of education funding.  The  transcript of a conversation among NYT Magazine editor Paul Tough and five education talking heads: Green Dot Charter School Founder Steve Barr, American Enterprise Institute education impresario Frederick Hess, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Venture Philanthropist Vanessa Kirsch and former Gates Foundation education head Tom Vander Ark.

To Diane Ravitch, the article confirms that the champions of corporate-style education reform have nothing but disdain for those "ordinary educators who toil in the classroom.... Only those untainted by actual direct experience of education have the insight to 'fix' the school system." 

Alexander Russo takes an even darker view, portraying the five conversationalists as self-serving and sycophantic.

Mike Petrilli at the Fordham Foundation is much less critical, but he does call them out for their total neglect of instruction or educational content.

I'm with Petrilli on this one. The New York Times piece leaves the impression that new incentive or governance structures alone will set you free.  The five speakers breathe nary a word about strong academic content or classroom instruction, and in this they fall right in line with altogether too many other leading lights in the current reform debate.

My advice to Paul Tough and his conversation partners: