Mark, there is a lot of disagreement among progressive left educators as to what constitutes the best education and education strategies, so I wouldn't be too concerned about coming off like the Republicans. The truth is, the progressives did have a tremendous amount of influence over the education system for the better part of the last 30 years, and have only managed to make an even worse mess of it. I say that as someone who works in the public education trenches, and politically is very far to the left.

The most current research does show that the real barriers to academic success in public education are the same for boys as they are for girls: classes that are too large, classrooms and schools that are inadequately staffed funded, poverty and racism.

There is a reason why Catholic private school education is taking off again, and that so many non-Catholic students of color in the inner cities are attending them. They do a better job of educating children of color than the public schools do. I really regret not sending my daughter to Catholic high school, and she (an 11th grader) now regrets not going to the Catholic school which offered her a nearly full scholarship.

As to uniforms, my daughter the rabid individualist, never minded wearing hers. She loved being able to not think about what to wear. The laziness factor is very appealing with uniforms! Just fall out of bed & into the uniform, and voila! You're ready for school. I wish public school students had to wear them too, as they do everywhere else in the world except here in the US. Life is so much easier with uniforms, and while nothing eliminates class from the equation, having everyone look the same does make for one less thing for wealthier students to get away with mocking poorer students for. And that is A Good Thing in my book. Not to mention the fact that the designer clothing industry would sell less of their product produced in third world countries by child slave labor. Another Good Thing.

I've always thought the argument against uniforms was like arguing for having the freedom to choose between a hundred bad products in the sugar cereal isle. It has always seemed like a capitalist argument to me, rather than a democratic one. I consider uniforms much more democratic than the capitalist driven choices about fashion in the schools. But that's me.