Opinion: White-collar supremacy

View in [Browser] | Add [nytdirect@nytimes.com] to your address book. Friday, November 25, 2016 [The New York Times] [NYTimes.com/Opinion »] [Opinion] Friday, November 25, 2016 Many of the initial reactions to Donald Trump’s choice for Education Secretary — Betsy DeVos, an education-reform advocate — were predictable. Many conservatives praised her, and many liberals blasted her. For anyone who still has an open mind about the politics of education, though, I’d urge a nuanced, wait-and-see reaction. Education reform — an inchoate mix of standards, accountability and choice — has succeeded in some big ways. These successes don’t get as much attention as they deserve, which is in part the fault of us in the media; we tend to focus on bad news, and to be sympathetic to traditional schools. For a very quick sense of the reform movement’s successes, you can look at the results in [Washington] or [New Orleans], two laboratories of change (or read [my recent column from Boston], which reviews the academic research). Yet those of us who believe these successes are real also need to acknowledge that education reform isn’t a magical formula for success. Some reform-oriented schools have failed miserably. In particular, some in Detroit — where DeVos has been active — have [evidently] [failed]. What separates success and failure? Success depends on a balance of autonomy and accountability, as Susan Dynarski of the University of Michigan says. “Too little autonomy: stifles innovation,” Dynarski [tweeted] this week. “Too little accountability: bad schools proliferate & harm students.” Traditional schools often lack both autonomy and accountability. They can’t make their own decisions about curriculum or personnel, and they can deliver poor results, or great results, year after year with little consequence for principals and teachers. [DeVos wants to blow up that system] and turn education into more of a free market. I agree that more competition and choice would help many parents and students. But I worry that DeVos is drawn to a version of school reform that has its own troubles with accountability. She has pushed for vouchers that allow parents to pay for private schools even more than she’s pushed for greater autonomy and accountability in the public-schools system. And there is clear evidence that competitive market forces, by themselves, don’t prevent bad schools. The market is too complicated: parents and students can’t always judge what makes a good school and can’t easily leave one they have chosen. Just look at the many [poor-performing] for-profit colleges — or the fact that Michigan’s version of education reform, which is heavy for-profit schools, [seems to be performing worse] than other states’ versions. Choice works best when mixed with oversight. The politics of education have turned nasty in recent years, featuring various ideologues who can’t be persuaded by evidence. DeVos will obviously bring some strong views to the Education Department, but here’s hoping that she is open to evidence as well. No matter how good an idea may seem in theory, it needs to help children in practice. The full Opinion report from The Times follows, [including Kelly Baker] on the links between the alt-right of today and the pseudo-intellectual white supremacy of the past. She writes: “The alt-right appears novel only if we ignore the continuum of “intellectual” white supremacy from which it emerged: scientific racism in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the national Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s, and the Citizens Councils of the 1950s and ’60s” David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist  ADVERTISEMENT  Editorial [Donald Trump and the Lawsuit Presidency] By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The $25 million settlement of the Trump University fraud cases is only the tip of the iceberg.  Op-Ed Columnist [Does Decision-Making Matter?] By DAVID BROOKS Why are you interested in the things that interest you? Op-Ed Columnist [Coal miners and their families holding campaign signs in support of Donald Trump in West Virginia, where Hillary Clinton was campaigning.] [The Populism Perplex] By PAUL KRUGMAN What does the white working class want?  Avalon Nuovo [Op-Ed Contributor] [White-Collar Supremacy] By KELLY J. 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VANCE The regions and classes that send their children off to war were the same ones that voted for the president-elect.  Rachel Levit [Sunday Review] [The Thin Gene] By PAGAN KENNEDY The body of a woman whose mutation keeps her on the brink of starvation may hold the secret to treating obesity.  Editorial [President Obama signing the overtime protection plan in 2014.] [No Extra Pay for Extra Work] By THE EDITORIAL BOARD An outdated salary threshold in a law has left many employees without overtime, but a judge has blocked rules that would have fixed the problem. Editorial [Times Square, N.Y.] [Race and Marijuana Arrests] By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Despite progress on cutting down on unfair arrests, there is still a racial disparity for those charged in New York City.  ADVERTISEMENT  [Dan Woodger] Dan Woodger [Contributing Op-Ed Writer] [Paint Your Nails With Patriarchy!] By VANESSA BARBARA How in the world did nail polish become so sexist?  Letters [Naina Lavakare, a senior at the British School in New Delhi, is concerned about President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant messages, her mother said.] [As Foreign Students Worry About Trump] A college president, a governor and a teacher discuss the case of foreign students in a postelection America.  A NEW ELECTION PODCAST Listen to Opinion columnists and contributors on The Run-Up, a new podcast from The New York Times covering the final three months of the election. 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