By Dustin Beilke

Diane Ravitch was one of the architects of the No Child Left Behind law. Then she realized she was wrong, admitted it, and explained why in a great book that was published earlier this year, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education. That's three things that very rarely happen in public life: 1.) She realized she was wrong 2.) She admitted it. 3.) And then she wrote a great book about why.

Her essential arguments are that most of what passes for "school reform" these days not only fails to address the needs of K-12 education but makes all problems much worse. And Ravitch has a lot of insight into how this make-believe neoconservate crusade established itself as the lone voice of school reform.

The most prominent voice in the phony school reform movement these days is Microsoft mega-billionaire Bill Gates, and he is who Ravitch has targeted most directly in her criticisms.

This would not seem like a fair fight: the wealthiest person in the world vs. an education historian. But Ravitch took the fight to Gates, forced him to respond, and now, in this Washington Post piece, even gets the last word.

The only thing we can call this is a feat of organizing. It is not the strength of her arguments that has put Gates on the defensive it is the fact that she made them at all and kept making them in every venue that would allow her in.

The fight's not over, but at least now it's a fight.