Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well in my case I've read a couple books about KIPP looking for evidence that I was wrong, but I didn't find any. The problem is that while KIPP is probably the fastest way to improve kids performance on Things That Can Be Measured, there's a lot of research showing how this approach is really bad for kids. And the pro-KIPP literature doesn't take any of this into account. My problem with Gates specifically is that n…
So are the really bad things you mention things like obliterating intellectual curiosity, fostering dependence on authority, crushing children's self-esteem and so on? Because it seems like there are some people for whom those results define cruelty and failure and others for whom those kinds of critiques ring hollow and self-serving. This looks like a debate of preconceptions, the most intractable of arguments.
The issue is that this debate isn't even taking place, and people don't know about the research on what happens to kids' intrinsic motivation and such under these programs. Now if the parents knew this and thought it was an acceptable tradeoff then that would legitimately be an intractable debate, but for Obama and Gates to force this onto inner city minorities without informed consent seems extremely wrong.