A Missed Irony

In the July 3, 2015 “Notable and Quotable” column, the Wall Street Journal honors the school reformer, Marva Collins, who died this week at age 78, by resurrecting a 1982 opinion piece about her authored by Paul Gigot. Collins was a fearless supporter of funded tuition vouchers, and herself a celebrated teacher. Opponents charged that she was seeking to cripple public education, and thereby “played into the hands of the right wing,” in the words of a prominent Chicago Tribune columnist, who was “incensed” by her.

“Notable and Quotable” asserts that the columnist himself (later affiliated with the Chicago Sun-Times), acknowledged that, owing to gang fears, “he sent his two sons, now adults, to parochial schools…”