I wouldn't say broken for good, but I would say that education isn't the solution for what is fundamentally a social problem. In D.C., the public school district spends $30,000 per student (only slightly less than tuition at Sidwell Friends, where the Obamas send their kids). Many of the buildings are beautiful. And school performance is a disaster, because the vast majority of the families are low-income. Better schools and more qualified teachers are never going to fix their problems. It'd be better to just take a third of that money and write each kid a $10,000 check every year.

I hope it's not broken for good, but I do maintain that in this example it's not something that teachers or schools are going to be able to rectify. And I agree that pragmatically, when you have one bright kid among 100 heathens, the best thing you can do for that kid is get her someplace where she can learn something.