HowlerKarma - yes, I agree with you on Brin's generation and the shift with the last 10 years.
Brin is the same age as my brother; I was in high school when Nation At Risk came out. Since then, we've had the same mantra about how public schools are not preparing students and falling behind in terms of global competition. Of course, since then, we've had one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression or in most people's memory. And, we've had major shifts for workers, the middle class, and an increasingly unpredictable economy.
In the 70s and 80s, you still could compare standardized test scores between school districts or states from the newspapers and people still relocated for better public schools. In MA, there was white flight to the suburbs and away from the inner cities or deprived areas, for instance. But you didn't have the Internet, of course. More significantly, you didn't have NCLB or other forms of state or national control to make teachers and public education more consistent or accountable, if you like.
