Valerie Strauss, veteran education writer at the Washington Post, interviewed me about my new book SLAYING GOLIATH.

Her questions get to the heart of the book. I hope you will read the exchange.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Disruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Higher Education, Poverty, Privatization, Segregation, Testing, Vouchers

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

Chiara says:

January 21, 2020 at 11:43 am

It’s a relentlessly grim and negative “movement” as far as PUBLIC school students. I think they felt they had to make it that way to achieve the ideological “choice” objective but it still blows me away that none of these fancy people ever considered what they sound like from the public school side.
They offer absolutely nothing positive to public school students or families. I think it’s an indication of what an echo chamber it is that none of them figured that out, given that so many of them are political/marketing professionals.
It’s gotten worse over the decades they’ve been in power too. Bush and Obama was relentlessly negative towards public schools but DeVos takes it one step further and regularly bashes public school students.
No public school parent or supporter in their right mind would support these people. They’ve made it clear they have very little use for our schools or our students. I have no earthly idea why I’m paying tens of thousands of professional public school critics to work in government. I can’t point to a single positive contribution they’ve made to the local public school. It’s to the point in Ohio where public schools persevere in spite of them.

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- ciedie aech says:
  
  January 22, 2020 at 12:57 pm
  
  “I have no earthly idea why I’m paying tens of thousands of professional public school critics to work in government. ” This could even depressingly continue with the additional reality: “…work in government as PUBLIC servants”
  
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retired teacher says:

January 21, 2020 at 12:07 pm

I enjoyed the Q and A on “Slaying Goliath. You certainly chose your words carefully and diplomatically, and you also got your key points across. I especially appreciated your “Reverse Race to the Top” proposal. This is the incentive that Obama should have presented instead of continuing the same old test and punish syndrome that is the folly of the last twenty years. As you point out, the disruptors are the status quo. I hope that your book convinces some of the billionaires that they are on a fool’s errand, although I highly doubt it. I hope people that care about the future of public education will vote for one the two two progressive candidates running for president. It would send a message to Washington, DC, that we need real change that supports the common good.

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carolmalaysia says:

January 21, 2020 at 12:10 pm

I loved reading your interview. [I posted a WaPo comment saying why I wish you were Secretary of Education.]

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  January 21, 2020 at 12:21 pm
  
  Diane can’t be Secretary of Education. Evidently, complete lack of qualification is a prerequisite for the job:
  
  Betsy DeVos, aka Ditzy DeVoid, aka Cruella deVille’s younger sister, Clueless deVille
  
  John King, Jr.
  Arne Duncan
  Rod Paige
  Bill Bennett
  
  QED
  
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Chiara says:

January 21, 2020 at 2:18 pm

I encourage public school parents to read ed reformers and see for themselves how relentlessly negative they are about our schools and students.

Here’s the US Department of Education:

“Across the country, where this is happening to varying degrees, we’re seeing expanded education freedom and students finding their right fit.

West Virginia and Kentucky passing their first-ever charter laws. North Carolina empowering special needs students with Education Savings Accounts. Arizonans are loving their ESAs, too.

And then there’s Florida. Students in the Sunshine State have more mechanisms for education freedom than anywhere else in the country. Public charter schools, tax-credit scholarship programs, education savings accounts, vouchers. And yet, there is still unmet demand. Thousands of students are on lists hoping and waiting for a tax credit scholarship.

So, leaders there continue to press on with more education freedom. They recently passed, and Governor DeSantis signed into law, the Family Empowerment Scholarship program. It will serve up to 18,000 more students in its first year, and thousands more in the years to come. Florida leads as a model more states should emulate.

Now, let’s talk about Tennessee. Families throughout the state have long demanded better for students. That’s especially true in Shelby County, Memphis. Schools there have consistently failed students for years; many have been at risk of a state takeover and many reported appalling cases of teacher misconduct.”

It’s all like this. To read these folks you would never know many of them are paid by the public to supposedly provide some benefit to public school students.

Why are we hiring and paying people who have such a low opinion of our children and their schools, people who provide no positive benefit of any kind to the 90% of students who attend public schools? Is there a public school student in this country who would notice if all of them stopped coming to work?

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Ed Johnson says:

January 21, 2020 at 3:34 pm

“I would set aside $5 billion for a competition among the states to reward those that produce the best, most actionable plans to desegregate their schools. (This would be a reverse of the Obama-Duncan “Race to the Top” where states won money by increasing charter schools and emphasizing test scores.)”

Love it!

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SomeDAM Poet says:

January 22, 2020 at 8:10 am

Looks like VAMbot Brian Davison has changed his pseudonym from VirginiaSGP to ConditionalProbability in the comments on the Post site

“You can see where Ravitch’s absolute evil shines through here. ”

But I can’t blame him for wanting to change his handle. Everyone had come to recognize VirginiaSGP as a 🤡

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 22, 2020 at 8:58 am
  
  Valerie Strauss gets vile comments on her blog. One commenter said he hoped she would get cancer and die. She doesn’t moderate comments probably because she gets hundreds on each post. I moderate problem commenters and delete offensive, racist, or insulting comments. Sometimes the vicious change their name to escape moderation but I catch them because I read every comment.
  
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  - carolmalaysia says:
    
    January 22, 2020 at 9:34 am
    
    dianeravitch: That’s interesting because I’ve had to change comments on WaPo that I made about Trump. I’d get a sign that said what I wrote wasn’t acceptable language.
    
    Guess its okay to viciously slam some people but NOT the Orange Buffoon.
    
    Diane, how do you have time to write this blog, write a book AND read every comment. You are totally amazing!!! Thank you for sparing us readers racist, offensive and insulting comments.
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 22, 2020 at 11:15 am
    
    Energy is created by passion, and a dollop of rage.
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    January 22, 2020 at 11:16 am
    
    Valerie told me she never reads the comments because so many make her cringe, either with hatred for her or hatred for teachers or hatred for whatever she posted.
  - carolmalaysia says:
    
    January 22, 2020 at 11:51 am
    
    dianeravitch: Expressing extreme hated and rage seems to be the acceptable way to act these days thanks to the Orange Swamp Monster who calls everyone who doesn’t bow vicious names. [I remember when presidents didn’t act like this. It now seems decades in the past.]
Máté Wierdl says:

January 22, 2020 at 11:21 am

‘”Because of their vast wealth and the political power they purchase, they are Goliath.”

A single sentence from the interview which says a lot—basically contains all the basic issues.

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