In 1983, a blue-ribbon panel composed mostly of educators told the United States that its future was at risk. In the eight years since, most Americans have come to agree with them. If once the public schools could do no wrong, today it seems they can do little right. Even parents who praise their own children’s classrooms join the rest of the public in giving the schools failing grades.
A version of this article appeared in the March–April 1991 issue of Harvard Business Review.
