Too Much Rain from His Hometown of Yamhill, Oregon,

has rotted the brain of NYT columnist and public school graduate Nicholas Kristof when it comes to writing about public education.

Either that or he feels he must kowtow to his bosses at the paper and continue with peddling neoliberal rot.

Apparently the "brilliant" women who used to flood public schools have decided to be surgeons, or shyster attorneys, or newspaper columnists and we now have morons graduating from teachers' colleges, or so people like him think.

I don't think Kristof would know what a "great teacher" was if one bit him in the ass. Of course no teacher, great or not-so-great, would bite him in the butt and risk his or her career and license. However, administrators like Michelle Rhee can duct tape students, publicly joke about it, and make tons of taxpayer money instead of having her license yanked and be banned from the field.

After all administrators, not teachers, are the real problem in public ed, but the "reforms" have nothing whatever to do with putting in "great teachers." It has to do with dismantling public institutions because they run counter to neoliberal "thinking." The public good does not exist; everything must be subject to something called "market forces."

In any case, talk is cheap regarding teachers. Nobody in his or her right mind would go into this field now given the shabby way they are treated.