RICK HESS & HIS 3Rs NATIONAL TOUR

“Bon jour. Zis is ze American Enterprise Institute. How may I be of service?”  

Her voice was young and unmistakably French.  She pronounced the second ‘a’ in American softly, and the ‘i’ as a long ‘e.’  And ‘Service’ came out ‘sair-vees.’ Listening to her, every part of my body sprang to attention, if you get my drift.

I wish to speak to Rick Hess, I said. I don’t know him well enough to have his direct number, which is why I had called the general number of the right-leaning DC think tank. He had recently co-authored a sort of mea culpa for his enthusiastic support of supposed school reforms in Washington, DC.   I say ‘sort of’ because of how Rick buried his own role well down in the 7th paragraph.   “Lots of self-styled “reformers” had good reason to observe DCPS through rose-tinted glasses. A wealth of advocates, funders…