Mediocrity to the barricades.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: TILTING at windmills - Brief article

Though its result was understandable, the recent District of Columbia election was bad news in that it represented a successful revolt of the tenured class. By firing bad teachers, the Fenty administration and its school chancellor, Michelle Rhee, posed a threat to every mediocre teacher and civil servant. Unfortunately the tenured also have political power in many other parts of the country, where they constitute a similar obstacle to school and bureaucratic reform. Fortunately the public at large seems to be waking up to the problems of tenure, stimulated in part by Davis Guggenheim's...