I once watched a movie about people trapped in a New York City subway tunnel, and above all, they knew to avoid the third rail. Electrically powered subways derive their power through contact with a high voltage rail (very deadly) located between the train tracks, and this is where we get the term ?thirdrail? in politics. Social security reform is a common example of something so politically electric that no one dare touch or talk about it. Education has a third rail, too, a hidden but powerful source of high voltage that ultimately powers our educational system. Yes, I am talking about parents, and high voltage parents are a serious political problem for many so-called education reformers.