I am no longer giving lectures because I am devoting full time to writing a book.
So, if you want to see the lecture I gave at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, here it is.
What was most wonderful about this visit was that in preparing for my talk, I learned about the Kalamazoo Promise, a guarantee of subsidized tuition to every high school graduate from the Kalamazoo Public Schools by an anonymous donor. (I was so inspired that when I was in Seattle a week earlier, I recommended that Bill Gates launch the Washington State Promise, guaranteeing college tuition to every high school graduate in the state to any college where they were accepted. He is looking for new ideas, and this is one with great results.)
Michigan is a state that has invested heavily in charter schools and seen its standings on NAEP drop like a stone. No wonder Betsy DeVos brags about Florida but not her own home state.
Kalamazoo is a charming town with wonderful old-fashioned homes and office buildings.
The educators on campus could not have been friendlier. I enjoyed my visit and had the pleasure of seeing Gary Miron, who does very important work in studying charters and virtual charters.
In the photo, you will see that I wore a fur coat in mid-April. When I left New York, the temperature in Kalamazoo was 22. On arrival, there were a few inches of snow on the ground. The next day it was in the 60s, and all the snow was gone.
I traveled via the airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and walked under an arch at the airport that carried the big logo “Amway.” I was expecting Betsy DeVos to pop up any minute, but there was no sign of her. However, I did see her husband’s aviation charter school on the periphery of the airport.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great idea! The Washington Promise.
And let it spread from there.
Thank you for your willingness to share your own history with “reform,” and why you moved away from the movement. I wish others in “reform” were as honest and frank.
I have been in favor of integration since I saw the great impact it had on poor, minority students. I have heard others claim that integration has failed. This is a fallacy. On the contrary, the positive results have been encouraging. What has failed is the will to pursue it and support integration as a common value.
By the way, I enjoyed the airport photo under the Amway sign along with other Scamway products. Nice touch that I missed on the first reading.
Really clear and remarkably comprehensive given the limited time.
Kalamazoo is a perfect example of how the public’s investment in a research university pays for itself many times over, and if you like great brew pubs and microbreweries, it is a must-visit.
Diane: I follow your writing with great admiration. Don
Thank you, Don. Fighting on for what’s right.
Diane: I agree with Laura–remarkable coverage in the time you had, and riveting for anyone who is involved in education and cares about children, not to mention the future of our country.
Also, publicly funded adult education programs have been operating in every state for decades, they have great stats, and are the most overlooked educational asset in the country. Adult education programs hold the keys to bridging the gap between household poverty and children’s consistent achievement gaps in formal education. There’s plenty of evidence for the correlation between higher education of parents (mostly the mothers at this point), and the children’s achievement in school.
May I post a link to your speech on another forum? CBK
CBK, of course.
and surely a higher correlation of kids doing well in school themselves when they see their own parents pursuing education
ciedie aech: Yes. Yes. Yes, and so much more.
Well, while you were in Michigan talking public schools DeVos was on yet another junket promoting charter and private schools:
An Education Department press release noted that “the majority of Dutch K-12 schools are publicly supported private schools,” and highlighted new reforms in the United Kingdom that “include greater autonomy for schools and increased parental choice.”
The US House? The same:
“The Power of Charter Schools: Promoting Opportunity for America’s Students”
WEDNESDAY: CHARTER SCHOOLS — The House Education and the Workforce Committee holds a hearing on “the power of charter schools.” The primary federal role in charter schools comes through the federal Charter School Program, which provides funding to help the start-up and expansion of high-quality charter schools. Congress has increased annual funding for the program in recent years; it received $400 million in the appropriations measure passed in the spring.”
As you can see this is a very lively “debate” they’re having, inside the echo chamber. Our DC representatives span the spectrum, from people who promote charters AND vouchers all the way to people who promote charters, exclusively.
Public schools, of course, will either be ignored (the Democratic ed reform position) or denigrated (the Republican ed reform position). There’s bipartisan agreement on disdain for public schools. Opposing public schools is what brings the two factions of ed reform together.
You have to go to Grand Rapids, Michigan to see the city the DeVos family bought. I go thru there quite a bit. Last year the Catholic schools put up billboards advertising their schools. The charters already had billboards. This year the public schools started advertising.
Western Michigan is also dotted with billboards from a contracting company who advertise for substitute teachers. The signs basically say “if you have a pulse, we;ll hire you” – the education marketplace she’s created must be having some trouble recruiting low wage workers.
I can say unequivocally that DeVos has benefited Michigan’s already robust outdoor advertising sector and Michigan’s contract temp employee sector. Public education? Not so much. But that was never the point of the exercise.
Diane, thank you for highlighting Kalamazoo and The Kalamazoo Promise. As an educator here for 20 years it is a miracle: people with wealth paying for higher education anonymously who don’t dictate to teachers what and how to teach. The community has responded in many ways.
Kalamazoo has a high percentage of students living at or below the poverty line. The state is scheduled to mandate that student scores count for 40% of teacher evals. The state is losing teachers and enrollment in teacher prep programs.
The Kalamazoo Promise is changing lives but the state need to recognize the role poverty plays to stop the teacher shortage.