How education reform is becoming like the Eurozone

One of the great lessons that can be (though probably won't be) learned from the current economic crisis is that you shouldn't force yourself into a situation where you have to apply a single solution to a diverse set of problems. Much of Europe's current woes can be traced back to the fact that countries like Greece have to have the same monetary policy as countries like Germany. (Do a search for the Euro on Paul Krugman's blog for a detailed explanation of why this is such a bad idea.)

Schools are also a diverse population where elementary schools have a completely different set of challenges than do the higher grades, and where urban, suburban and rural schools each face radically different problems. Even if the proposed reforms are a good fit for one group of school (and that's far from a safe assumption), they will certainly be a poor, perhaps even disastrous fit for others.