Image by David Garry.

It’s that time of year when the days get shorter. The air turns crisp. The shadows stretch longer. And school starts.

It’s also that time when yet another pompous business CEO or ed-tech executive with zero classroom experience trots out a puerile essay declaring what’s wrong with education and how to fix it. Their miracle cure? Some shiny, overpriced gadget or a market-driven ideology dressed up as innovation. School boards and college administrators eat it up—not because it actually improves learning—but because it promises to cut costs by swapping out teachers for tech.

Let’s be clear: American education has real problems. On PISA tests, the U.S. lags behind other advanced nations. (PISA—the Programme for International Student Assessment—is the triennial global exam run by the OECD that measures 15-year-olds in reading, math, and science.) At home, racial disparities across and within districts are massive. Funding gaps create gross inequities in opportunity and outcomes. At the college level, quality varies wildly while costs spiral out of reach for working- and middle-class families. The elite schools? They price themselves like gated communities while clinging to legacy admissions that lock in privilege and perpetuate class stratification.

But here’s the kicker—we’re not........

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