A Liberal’s Cry of Despair

For three decades, E. D. Hirsch, Jr. has been one of the foremost defenders of the American public schools. He has also been a critic of the content of American education. None of criticism has gained any traction in the schools.

I did a search on Google for “E. D. Hirsch” and “public schools.” I got a lot of hits, as you can see here.

He has few critics. He also has no supporters with any power inside the schools. At age 89, he still has nothing to show for his time in redesigning the public...