Here’s the currently ubiquitous Diane Ravitch, speaking to National Review about public charter schools: “Some of them are absolutely awful and should never have been chartered and should be closed.”

But here she is in February writing about other public schools: “Closing Schools Solves Nothing.” And from her Twitter account just the other day: “What genius thought that closing schools would lead to better schools? Where has it worked? No anecdotes, please.”

Public charter schools? Bring down the hammer and close them if they’re not performing. But traditional public schools? Ah, they all have that secret magic ingredient that prevents them from ever being bad enough to close.