A movement depends on public awareness. Here is another important effort to inform the public:
**************
Update:
The meeting location has been moved to Gaige Hall, room 100.
SAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Privatization of Public Education
High Stakes Testing, Charter Schools and more
A Public Forum
Saturday, April 27, 10am-2pm
Rhode Island College
Gaige Hall, Room 100
Join us for this public event on the movement to privatize our public schools. What is behind the push to privatize? What role do government programs like Race to the Top play? What about high-stakes testing and charter schools? And most importantly: What can we do to stop the dismantling of public education and advocate for a better model of a fully public, fully democratic, fully funded public education system?
Sponsored by:
The Coalition to Defend Public Education
Latin American Student Organization at RIC
and LIFE (student organization at RIC)
For more information, call 401-400-0373
AGENDA:
10am: Keynote Speech: Jose Soler, Labor Studies Department, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
10:20-11:20: Panel Discussion: The Privatization of Public Education: The Big Picture
Panelists Include:
Thad Lavallee, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Servio Gomez, Rhode Island College
Monica Teixeira de Sousa
11:20-12:00: Intermission (light refreshments served)
12:00-1:00: Panel Discussion: The Impact of the Privatization Reform Agenda in Rhode Island
Panelists include:
Marcia Rangell-Vassell, Providence public schools parent
Aaron Regenburg, Organizer, Providence Student Union
Brian Chidester, Coalition to Defend Public Education
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Privatization” is an emotional term.
Liberals hate it without qualification.
Anything “privatized” means that it is no longer
run by the government. All Liberals and Progressives
don’t like that mantra.
Diane, are you one of those that think the private sector is
evil without exception?
LikeLike
It’s spreading.
LikeLike
How many corporatized charter schools have you worked in?
LikeLike
DeeDee
Zero.
But I know people who went to private schools and learned a lot.
When I went to public schools I learned a lot and what my private
school friends and I learned was not differentiable.
Is it about the kids or the profit of the owners of the private schools?
LikeLike
its not an emotional term…its an affective term to describe what’s happening…if you want to put forth real arguments for why you think privatization is good.then by all means do so and then we can have a discussion about it, …but if your just gonna heap labels and ideological accusations at people that follow this blog and care about education (many of whom are teachers and tutors and in education like yourself) and then asked loaded questions then just stop cause it doesn’t get us anywhere…it just fosters hatred and division…privatization has its limits…an entire life that is privatized means that the system assumes that the only motivation for people is profit…you really want profit motivation to be the one defining factor in education? that just destroys the essence of democracy and the idea of a school as a democratic public sphere where teachers collaborate on best teaching teaching practices, where ideas are discussed and debated, where learning is valued for the sake of learning. all the evidence is out there about how privatization of schools distorts their real purpose. plus you can’t just go on your own experience to explain away your argument…your just one person in this world.
LikeLike
and if you think Diane is against privatization just for the sake of being against privatization, than you know nothing about her. 10-15 years ago she was an advocate for charter schools and the like…its all explained in her latest book…but after she’s seen all the evidence of the damage its done she changed her positions. its take a lot of courage to change positions based on evidence, cause there are a lot of people in education who are unwilling to do that. want to read a great, balanced, evidence-based account about the damage privatization has done to our educational system…read her last book. the woman is a learned historian of education…you can’t just try to label her as an idealogue and think that you’ve made a good argument for privatization. gotta be a little more creative than that
LikeLike
Reflective Thinking
So I have to buy her book to understand how American education can be improved?
That sounds like a profit motive to me.
Am I wrong?
LikeLike
well you can also get it at the library. i never said you had to buy it. so people write books and make money off of them…that’s everyone who writes books man… you tell me is that a reason for not seeing what they have to say about an issue which they happen to be an expert on…good argument.
LikeLike
So is Diane interested in making money through publishing books (I have only one to my credit) or is she interested in improving education in America. Isn’t that the same
question we are asking of “charter schools”?
LikeLike
ask her yourself man…she answers comments on this blog addressed to her..i’ve read her response to questions just like yours…its always been she’s trying to gather a movement of teachers, students, and parents who seek to put up a courageous stand against the powerful moneyed forces who want to privatize education…just liked anyone else who writes an issue-focused book…its about informing people about a particular issue…why do you have assume the worst?
LikeLike
and you don’t have to read her book…just read this blog…read other people’s blogs…read article upon article, study upon study, data upon data, on the internet about how privatization is destroying our educational system…
LikeLike
“So is Diane interested in making money through publishing books (I have only one to my credit) or is she interested in improving education in America…”
I don’t know why it has to be an “either/or” situation. Sounds to me like you’re trying to find a means of discrediting her work:
“Hey, look! She’s greedy, too!!”.
It’s not just about Diane Ravitch. I’m fairly new to Diane’s blog. I find it refreshing to find an informed and intelligent voice that’s talking about the very things I’ve been seeing and talking about in my school(s) for the last 2 decades. The spin and outright lies in order to fulfill an alternate agenda. We don’t need her to tell us what’s up. We’re living it, every day.
What we DO need is a high profile voice to put it out there…which is what we’ve got, here. Couldn’t be happier about that.
I don’t care about how much money her book makes. She’s speaking the truth.
LikeLike
When it comes to helping kids, I am not greedy.
I would very much like to help kids.
LikeLike
Gitapik….I could not have articulated our shared feelings any better, sir
LikeLike
no one insinuated you were greedy…ed
LikeLike
My sincere apologies, Ed. The insinuation, as I took it, was that Diane’s as greedy as the charter school profiteers. Not you. I’m sorry you took it that way.
BTW: I know plenty of people who work for or believe in the “reform movement”. They love kids. They just have little or no experience in teaching them…yet put themselves out there as being the saviors of our country.
Our nation’s problems are so much bigger than the teachers. It would be laughable if the propaganda wasn’t so effective.
LikeLike
It’s so cute when trolls try to pretend that they’re not trolls. As if Diane hasn’t burned through enough bandwidth explaining why privatizing education is a bad idea. If you don’t understand her argument, feel free to say so – there are plenty of teachers around here who can help you out. But to try to claim she hasn’t made an argument is just plain trolling, as is trying to claim that Diane hasn’t advanced any positive solutions, as you claim one thread down.
LikeLike
“Privatization”, in this setting, takes the education of our children out of the people’s hands and places it in the hands of industry and competition. Buyer beware. Why should we trust Rupert Murdoch? Do you think his track record would warrant that trust?
LikeLike
As an organizer of the event, I just wanted to update some of the information contained here:
1) Aaron Regenburg will not be speaking on the second panel. Instead, Veronika Kott of Rhode Island Legal Services will be speaking on the impact of high-stakes testing on students.
2) The time of the full event will be 10am-1pm, not 2pm.
3) We will have a follow-up event including workshops on specific areas of interest to defenders of public education on Saturday, May 11 at 10am at the Rhode Island College Student Union Ballroom.
Thanks for posting our event!
LikeLike
As an organizer of this event, I wanted to update some of the information in this announcement:
1) Aaron Regenburg will not be speaking on the second panel. Instead, Veronika Kott of Rhode Island Legal Services will be speaking about the impact of high-stakes testing on students.
2) The total duration of the event is 10am-1pm, not 2pm.
3) We will have a follow-up set of workshops focused on organizing around particular areas of interest to defenders of public education on Saturday, May 11 at 10am in the Rhode Island College Student Union Ballroom.
Thanks for posting our event!
LikeLike
Diane
I have not heard from you. Very soon my public comments are going to change about your fundraising!!
LikeLike
What are you saying actually? Are you threatening Diane? I don’t understand your message? Are you the man who was at the Occupy DOE event speaking very loudly while others were at the podium?
LikeLike
Cannot get to that conference, although I would really like to be there. Distance and scheduling will not all it. Question? Will this be streamed somewhere on the internet or archived for viewing/ listening later.
Thanks for carrying and spreading the word!!!!
Dan
LikeLike
I am looking forward to attending this event. I made hard copies and distributed them to all of the teachers in my building.
It’s sad that so many of us (teachers) have no clue what is really happening to education in the country. People like us come across as conspiracy theorists or Moshe and Beadle.
Too many teachers are busy chasing their own tails with the new Common Core State (sic) Curriculum, dealing with draconian and time-wasting evaluations, getting used to increased class sizes, having to tolerate super incompetent district administrators, missing their principals, who used to be leaders but have turned into indifferent building administrations who talk “at” us and no longer “to” us, too busy dealing with evaluating us and trying to run the school while walking around with signs on their backs that state “I will be fired if the numbers don’t come up”, and watching union contracts being passed through shredders.
LikeLike
The corporate-state reform agenda is all one big privatization scheme that will negatively affect the poor most of all. But make no mistake, it will also “dumb down” education in general via the limited/bastardized/commercialized curriculum the privateers will replace quality public education with to further their own self-interested goals, creating a two-tier education state. Honestly, does one really trust the fast food diner claiming their food is healthy when all they care about is the bottom line and the bucks they make? Here’s a comprehensive essay that should be read and shared widely on just what the agenda is all about: http://www.scribd.com/doc/106337306/THE-CHICAGO-PUBLIC-SCHOOLS-ALLERGIC-TO-ACTIVISM
LikeLike
Maybe they can come to Southern Cal and other areas that need to be informed. Maybe we should have our own conference that deals with this.
LikeLike