Deborah Meier's conversation with Leo E. Casey of the Albert Shanker Institute continues today. 

Dear Leo,

Ten days of traveling; all wonderful but ... exhausting. I was left with no time to think about responding to your very thoughtful comments last week.

There are so many absolutely critical issues facing us that I find myself using overblown language about everything. Yes, democracy is at risk—locally, nationally, and worldwide. It will never be entirely abolished as a struggle worth fighting for. But it has received some serious blows. The role of money in politics is perhaps the inevitable outcome of the obscene levels of inequality we face. 

And the demise of public education in any form that you and I recognize is high on the list of casualties.

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