What fun to meet and talk with Chris Hedges!
Chris lives in a New Jersey town where a charter school was opened without the consent of the residents. Their taxes support a school they don’t want. Their local public schools are excellent. Why are they supporting a private school, he wonders.
At the end of the show, Chris gave me a copy of his national Best-seller, “Empire of Illusion.” It is an amazing book. Read it. You won’t be disappointed. You will see the world differently.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great interview, Diane. Thanks for getting the message out about charter schools, vouchers and school privatization. The Princeton Charter School (PCS) has been around for about 20 years. For a long time, the general public was not fully aware about what was going on with charter schools and what they were really about. That has changed now, many more Princeton residents are quite fed up with charter schools and school privatization. From all that I gather, the PCS is a good school and the parents love the school. I got into virtual arguments in the comments sections of Planet Princeton, NJ Spotlight, Jersey Jazzman and Princeton Patch about PCS. One PCS mother loves the charter school because she has a son with autism and claimed that he was not well served in Princeton public schools and that he is flourishing in PCS. Many of the parent defenders of PCS are very upscale and quite wealthy. One of the rich parents took out full page ads in the local Princeton papers and web sites praising PCS and bashing the regular public schools. This man lives in a huge mansion by Lake Carnegie and he does have a special needs daughter who is being well served at PCS. Things really exploded when PCS unilaterally decided that it was going to expand its facilities without informing the Princeton school board. Law suits are flying back and forth between PCS and the elected school board. Long story short: PCS operates as an elite private school at the expense of the REAL public schools that educate more than 90% of the children. Enough already.
I should add that many wealthy and highly educated parents send their kids to the actual real Princeton public schools. The great mass of Princetonians, rich or poor, support the public schools.
Excellent interview (& you look great, Diane!). What made you change your mind about going on RT?
Honestly, as I wrote in an earlier post, their shows are great. (I don’t watch most of their news programs, however, but The Big Picture {Thom Hartmann} & Redacted Tonight {a satirical news show in the style of Last Week Tonight w/John Oliver–although, I think, Redacted preceded L.W.T.} w/the brilliant Lee Camp are must-watch shows for me.
Again, as aforementioned, both Thom & Lee have covered the topic of charter schools.
They do, indeed, report the news/cover topics the msm will not.
(And I have read Chris Hedges’ prescient works way back. He’s always scared me…because I knew what he’d written was the awful truth, or soon would be. Brilliant & cautionary, & to be watched & read.)
I have one major problem with Hedges . His unwillingness to take Chomsky’s warning.
I agree, Joel. I took a trip down memory lane and recently viewed a debate between Hedges and Robert Reich from 2016 when the choice was between the fascist/Nazi apologist and Hillary. Reich said that given Trump’s deplorableness, the only sensible and sane thing to do was to vote for Hillary. Hedges said he was voting for Jill Stein and here we are a year later. Hedges didn’t have too many kind words for Bernie either. Sorry, he was really wrong about not voting for Hillary.
“Sorry, he was really wrong about not voting for Hillary.”
Hmm. How odd. I thought we lived in a democracy (or a democratic republic, if one prefers). I thought one of the main responsibilities of a citizen is thoughtful, knowledgeable, personal selection of one’s voting choices, not simply following a herd or picking the candidate who has a D or an R after their name. Silly me.
dienne77
“If you claim to care about the the most vulnerable in society , to care about oppressed minorities ….. ….. ,” Like one can not equate Nazis to Antifa . The choice was Trump or Hillary .
Retired,
I was thrilled to accept the invitation to be interviewed by Chris Hedges. He is scary brilliant. To be candid, I had no idea his show was RT until I arrived at the studio. I probably would have done it anyway, just to meet CH.
Excellent interview, Diane, but doesn’t appearing on RT automatically make you a tool of Putin?
Duke,
I promise I am no tool of Putin.
Great interview, aided by a savvy well-informed interviewer.
What Laura said
Diane Excellent interview. In today’s environment, Hedges remains a breath of fresh political air.
Also, I’m glad you made the point about DeVos’ religious zealotry. She is often lumped in with the oligarchs and Wall Streeters who are saturated with the consumer, corporate-capitalist ideology and only interested in education as a business model–investment opportunity. I don’t know how many others among the rich share this double-mission (money and religion); but DeVos’ position as Secretary of the Education places her stated religious mission in direct conflict with the missions, and the distinctions and separations, that are unmistakable aspects of the U.S. Constitution.
Has anyone actually asked DeVos how she views her religious “mission” in terms of her job? Also, what happens to the curriculum when schools are privatized–owned by oligarchs and/or corporations whose “missions,” at best, are split between financial gain and best-educating children? And what happens when someone (students or teachers or parents?) questions the owners and/or corporate interests? What is the difference between asking THOSE questions, and questioning how democracy works and what its relationship is to educating its citizens? That’s the core of the foundational issue–Are students fundamentally to become corporate lackeys or “workers,” or are they being educated to become citizens in a dynamic and open culture?
“I don’t know how many others among the rich share this double-mission (money and religion);”
To name a few: the Kochsuckers, Mercers, DeVos’s, Princes, Waltons, and that’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure others can name more.
I just finished listening to the program. It is absolutely FANTASTIC!! I wish more people, especially politicians, would watch it and learn something important.
Thank you, Diane for such a refreshing and honest diagnosis of what is happening today in education. You are definitely a wizard in this area!!
There’s nothing new in this interview that those of us who follow the blog didn’t know already. But that doesn’t make it any less riveting and inspiring. I just sent the link to this interview to all my contacts who might care and asked them to pass it along to their friends. Also sent it the superintendent of my local public school system.
I also want to thank Chiara for motivating me with her comment a while ago about how local tax levy funds are being siphoned by the state to support the corrupt Ohio charter and electronic “learning” industry. I attended my local school board meeting last night to ask about this and pledge to do more to educate my neighbors. I also repeated my plea made about seven months ago for the board to engage in educating the public about how state mandates are robbing us of our funds, oversight, and accountability.
Thanks to you both for helping me to keep my eye on the ball in these terrible times.
Garrison Keillor wrote, “When you wage war on the public schools, you attack the mortar that holds the community together. You’re not a conservative; you’re a vandal.” Well, the vandals have scaled the schoolyard gates led by Betsy DeVos. The people must stand up to this onslaught for the sake of our children’s futures.
Diane – You’re my hero.