To fix schools, stop moralizing

My second News & Observer column ran today.

“Most everybody agrees that education is a key to success and that our urgent and daunting challenge is to figure out how to help students reach their potential in an increasingly competitive world.

“Unfortunately, the broad common ground we stand upon is riven by the deep and ugly partisan divide that runs across North Carolina and the nation. Instead of focusing on solving our perilous problems, too many of us engage in schoolyard name calling and demagogic claims to the moral high ground. Labeling those we see as opponents as shameful, extreme and selfish is hardly an argument and certainly not a solution.”