This week marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most influential reports on the American education system. In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education concluded in A Nation at Risk: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Twenty-five years later, the American education system remains in a state of crisis. Microsoft founder Bill Gates does not embrace any war metaphors, but he has expressed real …
