Katie Benner on Meritocracy, Race, and American Education Reform

Today on the podcast, we’re joined by an old friend, New York Times correspondent Katie Benner.We look back on our days covering tech together at The Information and our old podcast Dead Cat, before diving into her new book, Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises.

The book examines a school reform experiment that claimed a 100 percent college acceptance rate, and what happened when the pressure to prove success overtook reality. Benner’s reporting traces how race, politics, and institutional incentives shaped decisions that ultimately left students paying the price.

We talk about how incentives shape outcomes, why well intentioned systems often fail the people they are meant to serve, and what this story reveals about meritocracy, power, and institutional decision making in America. This conversation is not about ideology. It is about how systems behave when results matter more than reality.