SHOCKER: Investigation into APS cheating finds unethical behavior across every level. “Across Atlanta Public Schools, staff worked feverishly in secret to transform testing failures into successes. Teachers and principals erased and corrected mistakes on students’ answer sheets. Area superintendents silenced whistle-blowers and rewarded subordinates who met academic goals by any means possible.”

It’s basically Enron with your kids. The cheating is a big deal, but what the cheating was designed to cover up is the broader problem of an education system that’s failing miserably, doing much worse at educating kids than it did decades ago despite a massive increase in resources consumed. Is that a sign of a lower-education bubble? I think it might be. “Steady increases in per-pupil spending without any commensurate increase in learning can’t go on forever. So they won’t. And as state after state faces near-bankruptcy (or, in some cases, actual bankruptcy), we’ve pretty much hit that point now.”