The Economist is probably the world's leading, English news commentary magazine. It is also politically conservative. The June 2010 issue has an interview with a Bush Republican, a distinguished educator who designed much of the currently trendy standardized testing of schools, ranking them, adding charter schools - all along the lines advocated by,say, The Fraser Institute and other propaganda fronts for the very rich.

About six months ago, my children came home from school with a lengthy questionnaire that I was requested to fill out. All the schools in New Brunswick had it. I read it quickly, then slowed down. It was the most absurd, useless and incompetent questionnaire I had ever seen. One sample question was typical.

"Is your child's teacher working hard to improve standards of education?"