Why do so many people find it so hard to tell the truth in the face of injustice? That’s easy: they are afraid. Afraid of being fired, afraid of being ostracized, afraid of standing alone.
More interesting to ask is why some people are fearless. Why are they willing to fight when others silently support them but remain silent?
Troy LaRaviere is unafraid. He is a champion for students. He is a principal of an Elentary school in Chicago who speaks truth to power. In this post, he is interviewed by EduShyster.
Here is his answer to one of her questions:
“The MO of this administration has been to take services that the public pays for and benefits from and hand them over to a private corporation that benefits from our loss. You know, I used to wonder why Emanuel left the White House to come to Chicago. I thought *he must really love it here to leave the White House to come and be mayor.* I didn’t get the trade off, but now I get it. If you want to rob a bank and rob it blind, what better way to do it than become the bank president and have the authority to create contractual relationships to direct the flow of tax revenue from services that benefit the people to schemes that enrich private corporations? And not just the billions of taxpayer dollars, but using the power of the city’s name to borrow additional dollars that we’re going to have to pay back to venture capitalists, vulture capitalists and corporate CEOs?”
LaRaviere has spoken out repeatedly on the failure if corporate education reform. He published an article recently showing that the public schools in Chicago outperform the charter schools. Time and again, he has lambasted budget cuts and privatization.
This principled principal deserves to be on the honor roll as a hero of American education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Middle class workers funded the research, at knowyourcharter.com, that shows the high cost and underperformance, of Ohio charter and on-line schools.
If Illinois legislators have integrity, unlike Ohio’s congress, LaRaviere’s championship of children, will result in positive change.
Thanks for the posting about a leader guiding his community in its fight for survival.
LikeLike
Mr. LaRaveire makes interesting use of the concept of “control fraud,” developed by Bill Black, a federal regulator who has detailed the technique of stealing from banks by owning them. Interesting to see this idea being put to such good use here, to illustrate how reformers destroy public education by hiring private corporations, using public money, to “reform” it. Steal tax dollars meant for public education by being paid those tax dollars to “reform” schools by getting rid of them.
LikeLike
Steve,
Thanks for highlighting the point and providing context.
LikeLike
I fixed two typos, I want to forward widely, thought you might want to fix.
Thanks for all you do!
Tracy Ajello
LikeLike