It’s popular to lambaste the quality of the public schools.

Author and educator Diane Ravitch suggests this is part of an ulterior motive of some to privatize the entire public schools.

Privatization has a role to play in education in places where public schools are not producing.

But there is no way private schools should replace public schools.

What is most interesting in Ravitch’s new book, “Reign of Error,” is providing the other side to the prophets of educational doom.

It is an American characteristic to be self-critical, sometimes to a fault.

GOOD OLD DAYS

As Ravitch writes, “From the 1820s to our own time, reformers have complained about low standards, ignorant teachers and incompetent school boards.”

The good old days were not so great.

“When present day critics refer to what they assume was a better past,” Ravitch writes, “they look back to a time when a large proportion of American youths did not complete high school and only a small minority completed four years of college.”

Fifty years ago, schools in the South were racially segregated.

Children with disabilities had no rights.

And if you spoke a language other than English, you were on your own.

Ravitch says the conventional wisdom that our schools are in decline is simply not true.

Test scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress, the most credible national test, are at an all-time high for whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

Graduation rates are at an all-time high. A total of 90 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 24 have high school diplomas.

Often they take more than four years to obtain those diplomas, but the fact remains they do get them.

More young people than ever are entering college.

And even more would do so if costs had not skyrocketed.

And today’s high school graduates often take more challenging courses than their predecessors.

That certainly is true for the higher standards in the Duval County public schools.

In 2000, 65 percent of fourth-graders reached basic math achievement levels on the National Assessment of Education Progress; that increased to 82 percent in 2011.

ACHIEVEMENT STATS

■ Reading scores in eighth grade have improved steadily since 1992.

■ Math scores in fourth grade have improved dramatically from 1992 to 2011.

For African-American students, gains have been dramatic.

For fourth-graders, the percentage scoring below basic dropped from 83 percent in 1990 to 34 percent in 2011.

The much discussed black-white achievement gap now is smaller than the gap between the poorest and most affluent students.

The income gap is twice as large.

Nearly 1 in 4 American children lives in poverty, a much higher rate than in other advanced countries.

When it comes to children, America lost the war on poverty. The results can be viewed in the schools,

The major reason for the achievement gap is family, accounting for 60 percent. The school accounts for 20-25 percent. But family cannot be controlled, school can, thus the emphasis on good teaching.

GRADUAL PROGRESS

The story of public education is not stagnation and crisis but incremental progress, Ravitch writes.

“We can’t keep crying wolf when we are making progress,” she writes.

Well put.

But what about the numerous studies that unfavorably compare the performance of American students with those in other countries?

True, American students have never scored especially well on them, Ravitch writes.

But there’s one major reason why they don’t — and it actually highlights one of America’s strengths: The international tests put little emphasis on measuring a student’s sense of creativity and critical thinking.

It’s that sense of creativity — of constantly seeking to innovate and push boundaries — that’s made America such a uniquely great nation.

Ravitch said some nations, including China, put more emphasis on memorizing and rote learning than critical thinking.

And the fact is American students in low poverty areas do just as well as their peers from other nations.

Vivek Wadhva, an Indian-American academic and technology entrepreneur, said American students learn independence and social skills.

“They learn to experiment, challenge norms and take risks,” Wadhva said.

“They can think for themselves, and they can innovate.”

BLAME POVERTY, NOT SCHOOLS

As for pockets of low tests scores, they normally are connected with poverty and high concentrations of racial minorities. Ravitch says it would be more productive to do more about the root causes of poverty than to privatize the schools.

“Reformers in every era used the schools as punching bags,” she writes.

Ravitch says people are wrong to say that nothing works, that public schools are obsolete and broken.

Alternatives, such as charter schools or vouchers for private schools, are useful in providing competition, especially in areas where public schools have failed to provide quality education.

But these options cannot and should not replace the mass education provided by public education.

“When the public schools have appropriate policies, personnel, resources and vision to achieve attainable goals, they respond with positive achievement.

“A citizen of a democratic society must be able to read critically, listen carefully, evaluate competing claims, weigh evidence and come to a thoughtful judgment.”

We can do that in public schools.

We must demand it.