????每隔幾年，公共政策領域的新問題就會引起作家們的關注。當宗教因素滲入政治辯論時，我們就開始探討宗教問題；當眾多研究將飲食和總體健康狀況聯系起來時，我們就專注于營養問題；當股市紅火時，我們又跟著轉向了技術問題。現在，最新的話題是教育改革。眾多書籍（以及雜志、電影和博客）已紛紛就特許學校運動，標準化考試，技術創新，盈利性學校，甚至教育關乎國家安全這類問題發表高見。現在，媒體明星和創業家斯蒂夫?布里爾這樣的重量級人物也已登場加入討論了。本周，他廣受期待的大作《課堂戰爭：美國校園改良戰內幕》（Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools）正式出版了。該書旨在對教育建言獻策，一如大衛?哈爾伯斯塔姆（普利策獎得主，早年以報道越戰聞名——譯注）曾對越戰深入報道，以及鮑勃?伍德沃德（《華盛頓郵報》的著名調查記者，水門事件的報道主力——譯注）對白宮所做的系列報道那樣。

????這本以新聞報道風格寫就的書卓爾不凡。這種風格符合大家對年屆60的布里爾的期待。正是布里爾一手創建了“法庭電視臺”（CourtTV），以及《美國律師》（American Lawyer）和《布里爾內容月刊》（Brill's Content）這兩大期刊。與對教育改革更為學究氣的探討——如斯坦福大學政治科學教授特里?莫爾一板一眼的大作“特殊利益”——不同，布里爾深諳名流、情節和小道消息的價值?！墩n堂戰爭》一書充滿了這些內容。

????以邁克爾?彭博市長為例，在布里爾筆下，他不僅是紐約市變革英勇無畏的推動者，還是個偽善的政客。據布里爾所說，當2007年彭博決定第三次競選紐約市長時，他立刻放棄了努力，在與教師工會的合同談判中不再就諸如終身教職等事項謀得重大讓步。這意味著紐約教育局局長喬爾?克萊恩失去了立足之地。布里爾對此寫道：“克萊恩在其任期的后期成了教育改革的激進分子，他最雄辯的高論也莫過于對教師工會的保護，而這在他已簽署的合同中本來就是題中應有之義?！薄究巳R恩現在是默多克的一名高管，正負責對新聞集團（News Corp）電話竊聽丑聞的內部調查。】

????書中還有對2010年12月克萊恩任期最后一天在辦公室所經歷的狀況的精彩描寫。當時他想了解自己一攬子福利的情況，這個福利規定，如果他選擇將自己401（k）計劃（即個人退休賬戶——譯注）的出資留在教育局的退休基金中，他就能獲得有擔保的8.25%的回報率。滿腹狐疑的克萊恩問道：“誰能保證這8.25%呢？”一位人力資源部門的職員向他解釋道，他有資格獲得教師工會合同賦予教師的福利：如果任何投資的回報率低于8.25%，則紐約市必須將差額補足?？巳R恩后來向布里爾問道：“除了伯尼?麥道夫（美國金融巨騙——譯注），還有誰能永遠保證每年8.25%的回報率？”書中還有一個豐富生動的場景：一群億萬富豪在曼哈頓秘密會合，商討如何資助學校改革，結果都困在家得寶公司（Home Depot）聯合創始人肯尼思?蘭格恩公寓的電梯里。正是這類內幕報道讓《課堂戰爭》一書有趣可讀，就算時不時冒出些口頭禪也無妨。書中各色人物紛紛登場，故事的敘述不斷跳躍，從華盛頓到曼哈頓，再到丹佛，再到德克薩斯，再到洛杉磯，再到新澤西，再到布魯克林，時間跨度則是從20世紀80年代一直寫到現在——而且不時出現穿插跳躍。

????布里爾以敏銳的新聞記者身份起家，但他作為實干家同樣留下了輝煌業績。除了期刊和有線電視，他還創立了“新聞在線”（Journalism Online LLC）——這在邏輯上幫助眾多出版商實施網絡收費——以及現已宣告失敗的旅游網站Clear——它讓旅行達人能更快速地通過機場安檢。在《課堂戰爭》一書中，他提出了完善教育體系的一系列方法。他希望解除他所說的教師工會在政治問題的枷鎖，因為后者反過來壓制了教師責任感。他說，這樣一來，全美范圍內的教師就能獲得更高的收入——從年薪65,000美元直到165,000美元。

????但是，與其他改革者不同，他并不想削弱工會領導人的力量，而是為我所用——“延攬”他們投身“戰斗”。他為紐約市提出的“尼克松訪華”式（意為具有歷史突破意義的舉措——譯注）的建議是——雇傭美國教師聯盟（American Federation of Teachers）的強力領導人蘭迪?溫加滕來管理教育。布里爾說，溫加滕確實告訴過他，她愿意擔任教育局長一職。她甚至宣稱，幾年前，彭博曾邀請她出任這一職位，對此，彭博對布里爾表示否認，并補充說：“這個想法愚不可及。一百萬年也不可能實現?！辈祭餇柕脑妇半m好，但看來勞資合作仍有很長的路要走。

????譯者：清遠

????Every few years a new public policy issue becomes au courant for authors. We got religion on religion when it infiltrated political debate; we focused on nutrition when so many studies seemed to connect diet to overall health; we serially turn to tech when the stock market heats up. The latest subject is education reform. Books (as well as magazines and movies and blogs) have come out on the charter-school movement, standardized testing, technology innovations, for-profit schools, and even education-as-national-security problem. Now, no less a media star and entrepreneur than Steve Brill has weighed in. His widely anticipated Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools, published this week, aims to do for education what David Halberstam once upon a time did for Vietnam or Bob Woodward these days does seriatim about the White House.

????It's a superb book, written in a journalistic style that one would expect from the 60-year-old Brill, who founded CourtTV, and the American Lawyer and Brill's Content magazines. In contrast to more scholarly examinations of education reform -- like Stanford political science professor Terry Moe's earnest "Special Interest" -- Brill understands the value of character, scene and gossip. Class Warfare brims with them.

????For example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg comes across not only as a courageous change-agent in New York City, but a hypocritical pol. Once Bloomberg decided in 2007 to run for a third term, according to Brill, he gave up trying to get major concessions from the teachers union in contract negotiations on matters like tenure. That meant undermining the schools chancellor, Joel Klein. "For the rest of his tenure," Brill writes, "Klein would be the rabid school reformer whose most eloquent arguments would be about union protections that remained embedded in the contract he had just signed." (Klein is now a top lieutenant to Rupert Murdoch and is running News Corp.'s (NWSA) internal probe of the phone-hacking scandal.)

????There's also a wonderful bit about Klein's final day in office, last December. He inquired about his benefits package, which provided that if he chose to leave his 401(k) contributions in the education department's retirement fund, he'd get a guaranteed return of 8.25%. "How can you guarantee 8.25%?" asked an incredulous Klein. A human-resources clerk explained to him that he was entitled to what the union contract gave teachers: If any investments fell short of 8.25%, the city had to make the difference up. "Who else but Bernie Madoff guarantees 8.25% a year permanently?" Klein asked Brill. There's another rich scene in which a bunch of billionaires secretly meeting in Manhattan to discuss funding school reform all get stuck in the elevator at the apartment of Kenneth Langone, the Home Depot (HD) co-founder. It's this kind of inside reporting that make "Class Warfare" fun to read, even with its occasional tics. There are just too many characters, and the narrative jumps from Washington to Manhattan to Denver to Texas to L.A. to New Jersey to Brooklyn, from the 1980s to the present -- and not always in that order.

????Brill's pedigree is as observant journalist, but he's made a mark as a doer as well. Beside the magazines and cable channel, he founded Journalism Online LLC -- which logistically helps publications charge Web fees -- and the now-failed Clear -- which enabled travelers to move faster through airport security. In "Class Warfare," he proposes a range of ways to fix the education system. He wants to undo the stranglehold he says the teachers unions have on politics, which in turn prevent teachers from becoming more accountable. That, he says, will permit teachers to be paid far more nationally -- from $65,000 to $165,000.

????But unlike other reformers he wants not to co-opt labor's leaders rather than emasculate them -- to "enlist" them in the "fight." His "Nixon-to-China" suggestion for New York City: Hire Randi Weingarten, the powerful leader of the American Federation of Teachers, to run the schools. Brill says Weingarten actually told him she'd take the chancellor job. She even said Bloomberg offered her the post some years ago, Bloomberg denied this to Brill, adding, "It's a really stupid idea. Never in a million years." Brill's fantasies notwithstanding, it sounds like management-labor collaboration still has a long way to go.