Broad, the man with the plan

I'm still reeling from Eli Broad's letter of "correction" to Small Talk. I'm worried that he may actually own the blogosphere.

Here, billionaires Forbes and Broad chat about AIG and public education. They both think AIG was a great company and want to use their business model to "reform" public schools.

Forbes is upset about all the rules in schools. I mean, you can't even whack a kid anymore.

By the rules; can't touch a student; hard to discipline them because everyone knows that if you do anything, you're going to get a lawsuit.

Broad agrees. He likes his version of smaller schools (privately manged charters) with more top-down authority for principals (not teachers of course) ala Joel Klein in N.Y., and lots of school closings ala Michelle Rhee in D.C. You know, the business model.

And of course, everyone complains when she, you close a school. Those 70 parents aren't happy. But for the good of the entire district and all the kids, you've got to do that.

As for his old company AIG (Broad is still very influential), he blames everything on the current management and on former N.Y. attorney general, Eliot Spitzer (he charged AIG with corruption long before their collapse and forced Broad's pal Hank Greenberg to resign) and tries his best, with Forbes' help, to cover his own butt.

This is the man with the plan for our public school system.