Katherine Stewart and I were invited by the Massachusetts Historical Society to discuss the assault on public schools by the religious right, libertarians, billionaires, and entrepreneurs.
Stewart is the author of an important new book called The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.
Since Massachusetts was the birthplace of public schools, it was a fitting venue for our conversation.
Webinar recorded 30 September 2020 — Will Public Education Survive?: A Look at the Threats to Education Systems from Privatization and Religious Nationalism with Katherine Stewart and Diane Ravitch, New York University The rise of the Religious Right has coincided with the privatization movement in public schools. While some may feel that this is coincidental, there is reason to believe there is a directly causal relationship between these two factors. Two scholars, from different disciplines, will discuss how their work comes together to help explain the history and current state of efforts to diminish, if not dismantle, the American public education system. Katherine Stewart has written on the rise and increasing power of the Religious Right in her book The Power Worshipers. She will be joined by Diane Ravitch who has written extensively on education and, in her recent book Slaying Goliath, explores the history of the school privatization movement and the efforts to oppose it.
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Thank you so much for sharing this link! I wanted to watch the discussion live back in September, but I was working at the time that it was broadcast. I found The Power Worshippers to be a frightening but clear explanation about many of the things that have happened in the past few decades.
Thanks to Diane and Katherine Stewart for informing people about the assault on public schools.
This week must be an awkward time for the Milken Institute. In the past few days the headline, “Vista Equity Partners Investor Charged in $2 bn Tax Evasion Case”, has been in the news. Vista is one of the sponsors of the Oct. 12-21, Milken Institute fest for corporations and self-serving “philanthropic” foundations who assigned themselves the role of government policy makers.
Americans may recall Michael Milken was convicted of crimes. The fest has a program about education with the usual suspects featured, Arne Duncan, Betsy DeVos, Nina Rees (Alliance for Charter Schools), Hakeem Jeffries and of course, moderated by a representative of AEI (Frederick Hess’ employer).
Linda, here’s the link to the attendees of the Miliken Institute Fest. https://www.tullahomanews.com/news/business/milken-institute-global-conference-opens-october-12/article_a85bb188-5585-5a09-a49d-ac315fe7b47a.html