Valerie Strauss one-ups her Post colleague in tightly summarizing the standard contentless Rhee critique:
The toxic atmosphere will make it impossible for real reform to take place. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong.
God help us if the day comes when it doesn’t matter who is right and who is wrong. And, to repeat myself, the first sentence is factually incorrect and politically blind. Real reform is taking place. That’s why there’s a toxic atmosphere!
In this new Education Sector report, co-authors Erin Dillon and Robin V. Smiles discuss the growing problem of students defaulting on their student loans. Based on the experiences of a small group of Texas HBCUs and a new statistical analysis of cohort default rates, they argue that institutions play a significant role in helping students avoid default./a>
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
In this Education Sector report, Policy Analyst Chad Aldeman calls for a new approach to high school accountability. He argues that the best way to measure whether students are prepared for college or a career is by looking at what actually happens when students arrive at their intended destination.
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.
It seems you’re being willfully obtuse here. Strauss’s point is that reform, and Chancellor Rhee, might not survive the toxic atmosphere. So reformers and their critics alike should worry about the atmosphere. And of course it matters who’s right and who’s wrong. But Strauss argues that convictions about who is right or wrong will matter not a jot if the political situation worsens–because nothing will get done, important stakeholders will become disaffected, etc…