Letters To the Editor

To the Editor:

In his excellent summary of evidence from around the world, Martin Carnoy concludes with regret that "the privatization movement ... is gaining just when pupils are making significant achievement gains ... because public education is getting better--without vouchers" (related story). It cannot be mentioned too often that the major impetus behind the "privatization" initiatives has nothing at all to do with improving educational quality.

The most activist privatizers are those who seek to recapture the schools from the clutches of the "secular humanists" who have supposedly been corrupting young people since the early 19th century. At the moment, this efforts unites Protestant fundamentalists and Catholics in a partnership of organizations traditionally unfriendly to each other. They have agreed for the moment that they would like to get their hands on public...