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There's something about the nation's education challenges that inspires a need for villains--and that's a shame. Many think tank dwellers cast teachers and administrators in that role: slothful, self-serving adults who value bureaucracy over children. (Please.)

Former big businessman and current Nevada university chancellor James Rogers is also on the hunt for villains in the education morality play, but he reserves his venom for "the public." Blogger Robert Pondiscio unearthed a Youtube video of Rogers exempting educators from blame: "The majority of educators work very hard, are much smarter than their critics, and are far more organized and efficient than their critics."

Rogers spends most of his time laying the blame for an education "disaster" at parents' feet.

The state of K-16 education in Nevada is where the public–that is you out there–has allowed it to sink. Your only relationship with the education system is to ship your unprepared kids to school not with the expectation of success, but with the demand that an education system, inadequately funded, develop and/or repair children that you as a parent did not prepare for school or support while your children attended school.

His shocking harangue goes on for some time, and it gets worse. While it's refreshing to see a businessman repudiate the notion that educators are responsible for all that ails schools, it's very disappointing to see this argument go hand in hand with an unfair and counter-productive attack on parents.

Rogers would do well to consider the impact of his words on the many dedicated and involved parents in Nevada. He might also spare a thought for those Nevada parents who face tremendous challenges every day. Policymakers, educators and community leaders should do all they can to give such parents every opportunity to become engaged in their children's schools.

Nevada Republicans came to the defense of parents, saying Rogers "owes every caring parent in the state a public apology." After that promising start, though, they slipped back into the blame game: "For Chancellor Rogers to blame the failure of the government-run education system on parents is nothing short of outrageous."

Ah, so it's the government (minus Republican lawmakers, of course), that is to blame. Glad we sorted that out.

Rogers and his detractors should follow President Obama's lead and start speaking about--and taking--responsibility. Unfortunately, too many education commentators confuse responsibility with culpability. There is certainly enough blame to go around, but we tend to absolve ourselves when we find villains. That's why outrage is so seductive.

The point of responsibility is that it has a claim on all of us.