In a conversation with Queen Rania of Jordan, Bill Clinton says private sector involvement is key to progress in education. One of the most encouraging developments in New Orleans since Katrina is “the growth of what we call charter schools,” he said. “About half the New Orleans public schools now that have been reopened are charter schools. It’s changed the whole sense of the community, from a sense of hopelessness to a sense of empowerment, not that miracles have been performed.”

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.