I Will Be on NPR “The Takeaway” Today

January 17, 2017 //

I was taped this morning for NPR’s “The Takeaway.” It comes on at different times on AM and FM.
The show interviewed a charter school advocate from Michigan, then me. The conversation was about Betsy DeVos and her crusade for charters and vouchers.
When I get a link to the show, I will post it.

Categories Education Reform

18 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Allison White says:

January 17, 2017 at 9:41 am

http://www.wnyc.org/story/secretary-education-nominee-betsy-devos-faces-confirmation-committee

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Charles Hanley says:

January 17, 2017 at 9:43 am

Just now on MSNBC, the moderator Stephanie Ruhle introduced a report on the DeVos hearing by saying Teacher’s Unions were upset at the DeVos nomination. She then opined that education should not be about teachers but about the children. It really stuck with me because this past weekend a NYC science teacher got on a bus and travelled all the way to Cornell to attend our workshop on the new Foldscope technology. She just made it to the bus depot for the return trip. That’s a ten or eleven hour roundtrip to learn something to help her students ! Thanks for all your good work.

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mary cummings says:

January 17, 2017 at 10:21 am

Just listened and you were great. You have the knowledge and credibility that can make people listen and your arguments are perfect. I wish we had more people who could command credibility as you do.

I heard an interview of Randi Weingarten on a TV interview in which the interviewer clearly Randi as the evil union destroying of education. The interviewer even referred to comments about Randi’s personality as arguments for DeVos. This is the third or fourth time I have heard that kind of interview indicating that the public media buys the idea that PSs are terrible because teachers are inept. The station will be interviewing Eva later but I can’t stomach watching that one.

Perhaps comparisons of rich suburban school systems to poor schools would make the point but I doubt it. I would love to have a handy list of outstanding or even just successful schools in poor urban areas to bring up and boast about in these conversations instead of just talking about the flaws of vouchers and charters. Without that, I fear we seem to accept the mantle of failure.

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- Joel Herman (@jwherman11) says:
  
  January 17, 2017 at 11:34 am
  
  “Perhaps comparisons of rich suburban school systems to poor schools would make the point”
  
  It is precisely the point I live in one of long Island’s best preforming districts. As Lloyd said the other day about his lecture to his students . If we switched students between my district and the neighboring poor district the only thing that would change is the ratings of the teachers in each district .
  
  It is not an accident that public education is under assault. Besides the obvious attempt to reverse the effects of Brown vs Board of Ed..
  The sub context is to shift the blame for income inequality on to the individual.
  
  The argument goes like this:
  You are struggling because your ethos are bad and you have been failed by your education. We are going to give you the opportunity for a quality education by completely destroying the current system .If you then fail it is your fault that you have failed.
  
  The fact that this is an economic failure not a failure of schools and will never be substantially changed by education is never entertained ,because that will shift blame.
  
  It is reminiscent of the Native American Boarding Schools . Take the Indian child away and educate him . Another ill fated effort that destroyed far more than it helped. A poor excuse for the cycle of poverty we threw Native Americans into by stealing their land and corralling them on reservations .
  
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  - marynwill says:
    
    January 17, 2017 at 11:53 am
    
    I listened to a pod cast of Fresh Air with Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones who writes for the NYT magazine. She has been researching segregation and integration in NYC public schools for several years and the information she provided is very interesting – and irritating. She has placed her own daughter in a successful public school in Bklyn.
    
    Her point is that integration works but is difficult to implement – especially when “upper class” people don’t want it. I’m going to search her articles for examples of the impact of integration. I understand it was a tremendous success in North Carolina until the “reformers” “fixed” it.
- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 17, 2017 at 11:46 am
  
  Thanks! I recently visited two public middle schools in Brooklyn, one large, one small, and was blown away by their excellence, dedicated staff, and diverse student body. Well-mannered, happy.
  
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Ohio Algebra II Teacher says:

January 17, 2017 at 10:41 am

Can’t believe they gave you the forum (but very happy that they did)!

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GregB says:

January 17, 2017 at 10:46 am

Excellent. Have shared with friends and neighbors.

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Joel Herman (@jwherman11) says:

January 17, 2017 at 10:59 am

I shared it as well . A light weight vs a champion .

What should have been most evident was his argument was a fluff piece and you came in with facts and reality on your side. I had to listen to it again to be certain that he did not talk about performance at all . But notice how “choice” is highlighted .Why being against choice is like being against motherhood and apple pie. Of course he didn’t say that the pie was laced with arsenic .

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 17, 2017 at 11:39 am
  
  Joel,
  
  The food analogy works. People getting hamburger wish they were getting filet mignon instead, like DeVos and Obama and Trump kids. But the real choice is different brands of dog food.
  
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Karen Wolfe says:

January 17, 2017 at 11:36 am

Great interview, Diane. Thank you for giving us more to share as we try to get support for public school students.

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- ciedie aech says:
  
  January 17, 2017 at 1:19 pm
  
  hear, hear
  
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Laura H. Chapman says:

January 17, 2017 at 11:41 am

Heard the NPR program..
Whether the Diane’s command of facts and her reasoning can make a difference is one big question. Another question: Who whould be in line for the position if she is not confirmed.

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Joel Herman (@jwherman11) says:

January 17, 2017 at 12:22 pm

I would think Don King would be next in line their qualifications are equal.

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Ohio Algebra II Teacher says:

January 17, 2017 at 12:28 pm

Really not sure if it’s worse to have such a transparently unqualified Reformer or one with the patina of credibility.

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Frances Araujo says:

January 17, 2017 at 2:29 pm

My children and my grandson were failed by public education. However DeVos is a nightmare because she doesn’t promote improvement of public schools ( my family’s only choice) .

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Ryley Marchion says:

January 17, 2017 at 3:35 pm

My son is in a charter school in Florida. It is an excellent “public” school. We applied to several non-charter public school choice programs and were not chosen for any of them. This means my son would have been in the neighborhood school if not for this charter school. How can you say that one of the public programs which we did not get into is a better public education option than the charter school that my son did get into? Being pro-charter does not mean anti-public. My son would be taking up a seat and receiving public funds at either school. However, the charter my son is in offered a choice that the public school didn’t in this case.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 17, 2017 at 4:08 pm
  
  Ryley,
  
  Charters open and close in Florida as often as flowers in the spring. Many are run by unscrupulous corporations whose only goal is money. Charters are rife with fraud, especially in Florida, where the state leaders have no interest in offending their powerful lobby. Why support the for-profit frauds that overrun the state of Florida?
  
  Reply