Reporter Jaisal Noor has created a gripping radio documentary about the fight to save neighborhood schools.
He lets the “reformers” have their say. They want to close down the so-called failing schools and replace them with new schools that won’t be failing schools, at least not for a few years. Then they too can be closed and another new school can be opened.
The closing schools serve minority students. They are overcrowded and underresourced. They must be closed. So say the officials.
Jaisal Noor listens to students, teachers, and parents. What a novel idea.
The officials don’t hear students, teachers, or parents. They know what’s best for everyone. And what’s best is to close their school.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just finished listening to “gripping radio documentary” and am shocked. I knew thing were bad, and that privitazation was a means of destroying democratic principles, but frankly, I think few Americans know what is happening in communities across our nation now.
I try to keep up with current issues, especially with the restructuring/destruction of the people’s public schools, but now I can honestly say that I believe school restructuring is the carefully planned destruction of our free society. This radio documentary was really an eye-opener for me, and I have been doing educational research for over thirty years.
From my research, I realized that children were being dumbed down through the government’s destructive experimental programs when I first saw them in the book titled “Education Programs That Work”. I was also a reader for their programs. I became a reader so I could follow what the feds were advocating for our nation.
I read the legislation in Arizona and from several others states. Concerned citizens sent me entire packets of what was happening in their states. At the invitations of citizens, I spoke in several states against the phoney “Nation At Risk”; and everything else that followed i. e. America 2000/Goals 2000, School-to-Work and the New American Schools Development Corporation’s radical design teams. I spoke against the “radical” behavior modification programs being used on children and teacher alike.
I used only their documented research, not manufactured research we see now being used to destroy public education, and yes, private and religious schools as well. One can find research data to support any point of view, and researchers get paid big money to compile phony documentation. They often use peer research…this means “you scratch my back, and I will scratch yours”. Uninformed politicians grasp at straws when they use undocumented research. They often get caught as several are now being exposed and citizens are now questioning. It’s about time the American people question these snake-oil peddlers. The next time I respond, I’ll try and think of a better term for them, but it might not be printed.
Thank you Diane for all that you are doing. I see that you often start in the early A. M. We must also remember all our good educators and citizens who are standing up for children and freedom. Take care, and keep up the good fight! You are not alone. There are many Americans who have continued to speak out against such tragic things we heard on the video. As a History major, I find this most alarming!
The “gripping radio documentary” should be played on every media outlet in our country, but it will not because the major media is supporting this tragedy. This “radical political” destruction of our free society is coming not only from the so-called conservative right, but from the so-called liberal left.
The NEA and AFT sold the teachers and children out years ago, so don’t look for any help from the major officials of these organizations. Check their past positions on choice.