Joshua Q. Nelson wrote a story for FOX News, saying that I was a hypocrite for sending my sons to private schools (more than 50 years ago) and ignoring the fact that I turned against school choice publicly in 2010. His source was Corey DeAngelis, who works for Betsy DeVos. He has attacked me so often on Twitter that I blocked him.
A little bit of research would have shown that I supported school choice from the late 1980s (when charters first emerged) until 2008 (when I started writing a book about my disavowal of conservative education ideology—charters, vouchers, standardized testing, merit pay, and high-stakes accountability).
My change of mind and heart was well covered, not only in The New York Times, but in The Wall Street Journal and other publications). And the book became a national bestseller.
Christina Pushaw, a close aide to Ron DeSantis, amplified the story in her Twitter account, as did the notorious Chris Rufo.
Since the story came out, I have received numerous death threats. Yesterday, I got another one, a long and garbled message with religious allusions, which ended by saying “Yes, we will be ‘slaying Goliath.’ You are Goliath.”
I think Joshua Q. Nelson should be aware that he was played by DeAngelis and correct his story.
Meanwhile, I am flattered that Ron DeSantis and Betsy DeVos and their minions read my tweets and perhaps my blog. I would like to recommend that they read my last three books, where I demonstrate the importance of public schools and the hoax of school choice, which originated as the battle cry of segregationists after the Brown decision.
In a diverse society like ours, public schools bring children from different backgrounds together. They are essential for our democracy. They are the best choice.
Of course, parents are free to make private choices but they should not expect taxpayers to pay for their choice to send their child to a private school that discriminates against others.
Meanwhile, here is a reading assignment for Corey DeAngelis, Christina Pushaw, Chris Rufo, Ron DeSantis, and Betsy DeVos:
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/01/14/the-dark-history-of-school-choice/
And three books:
Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools (2013)
On a personal note: I am 84. I do not fear your threats. I write what I choose. I will not be intimidated.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ron, Christine, Trump, and the GOP are all bullies. When you stand up to them, they use stochastic terrorism to go after their victims so they can keep their hands clean. Cowards all.
A cartoon flashing by me somewhere on the web this morning shows a bunch of white-hooded people standing around a pile of sticks. The caption was, “The book burning was cancelled because they didn’t have any.&rdquo.
Jon, good one. Frightening.
Even if the fascists on the extreme right did burn paper books, they still can’t burn the digital versions: ebooks and audio books, easily available on every device linked to the internet.
Lloyd I was thinking this morning about the grid . . . CBK
I am feeling very slow. What the heck is “any.&rdquo.”
typo (I omitted the semicolon at the end of the code for a right double quotation mark ” )
I am brain dead apparently. I still don’t get it. Spell it out, please.
see the link i provided. the mnemonic code for a Right Double QUOtation mark is spelled & r d q u o ; only without the spaces. i left off the semicolon so it printed just the &rdquo
Sheesh! I finally got it! You were just trying to add “right double quotation marks!” I kept looking for some secret, insider message.
Very funny, by the way. 🙂
https://www.math.uh.edu/~hjm/HTML%20Tag%20List.htm
On the one hand distressing, on the other pure anger about this. The historical figure I admire most and find endlessly intriguing is Carl von Ossietzky, writer and editor of Die Weltbühne, one of the first, most substantive, and unrelenting critic of Nazis before they attained power. He was arrested on the night of the Reichstag fire after months of pleading from friends that he leave the country. He wouldn’t think about it and continued on his business. He was tortured in concentration camps, often singled out in front of audiences, and was the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who was given the award to highlight a political situation, something common today. A worldwide campaign to present him the award as a way to put pressure on Hitler to free him. He was denied the opportunity to accept it and died of incarceration-induced maladies in 1938.
Diane is the only contemporary American who measures up to the legacy of Ossietzky. Oddly, it is a high honor to be attacked by the lowest forces in American history. And it’s kinda nice knowing they have no idea what they’re messing with. Can we make this an opportunity to elevate education as a national priority?
Greg, you made my day! I’m honored.
An international award for Diane’s courage, I agree.
Greg, this is so true. Diane dared to disagree with the billionaire boys club. Public education advocates like Diane, who have reach & influence are prime targets from well-funded edu-privatization organizations & political demagogues. It takes courage to defy these groups. Diane has been successful in building up NPE, a vocal, effective infrastructure to counter their lies.
I don’t criticize you for sending your own kids to private schools; parents across the political spectrum have always chosen that option for various reasons. The problem is that you won’t admit that you chose private schools for the same reasons that other parents have done so. You recently claimed that you chose private schools because that was the tradition in your then-husband’s family and because you were then a conservative. You are clearly implying that you had no personal agency in that decision, that your decision was not in any way based on your perception of the private schools that your sons attended being a better fit for them than the nearby public schools.
You are telling people to believe that you essentially gave no thought to your choice – it was just made robotically. Yeah, right: a devoted, very pro-education mother with a doctorate in the history of American education made no comparisons between the traditional public schools in her area and the private schools that were available. You were such a wallflower that you didn’t think for yourself. That defies credulity.
You know you are vulnerable on this issue so you concoct such an unbelievable defense to preserve your good standing with the public school establishment. You have a right to do, but rational people don’t buy your story.
P.S. No one should threaten you or anyone else with violence.
Jody,
I was 24 when my child started preschool. I was a young woman from Texas who married into a prestigious family in New York City. My husband started private school in 1936; his sister in 1941. Every member of the family—every cousin, niece and nephew—went to private school. Yes, private school was de rigeur for the family and I went along. You are correct: I had no agency. I have written a memoir and you will understand why if you ever read it. I earned my Ph.D. In 1975. At that time, I was indeed conservative politically. I had no regrets about having my children in private school. There were 12-15 students in a class. No standardized testing, no grades. Lots of resources. Great teachers. The tuition at that school today is about $57,000. No empty seats.
I did not concoct an “unbelievable defense” for sending my sons to private school. I was well-known as a conservative through my writings in the 1970s-until 2010, when I jumped ship. Nothing concocted about that. Why would I need to “preserve [my] good standing with the education establishment,” as you say. I’m retired. I don’t care what the establishment thinks. I write what I believe to be true.
Jody,
I do not know how old you are but I can tell you as a woman born in 1953 that times were quite different regarding the ability of women to engage in family decision making processes. This was especially true for women who married into powerful families. Diane speaks the truth. She told me the same years ago in personal conversations long before this controversy erupted.
People change and they grow. And those with the courage to change their mind are priceless. With all do respect, it is not your right to judge. I know of no one who is more honest than Diane. You may believe you are “rationale” and perhaps you are. But in this case you are also wrong.
Jody,
I first voted while I was still serving in the US Marines (1965-1968), and I voted Republican up until 1980 when Reagan ran for president and ended up winning. I despised Reagan for the lies he used to get elected governor of California, the state where I was born and still live.
I haven’t voted for a Republican since 1980. Up until 2016, I was registered as an independent voter. When Traitor Trump ran for president on the Republican ticket, I became a registered Democrat.
Back in 1984, I became a Rush Limbaugh fan (he called us ditto heads and said we didn’t need to think because he’d do our thinking for us), until the day I decided to accept his challenge to fact check the BS coming out of his mouth, and learned almost everything, if not everything, that spewed from that mouth was more dangerous than toxic vomit.
The Rush Limbaugh strain of malignant cancer of the brain did not die with him.
Does the fact that I started out voting for Republicans and was a Rush Limbaugh ditto head for a few years back in the late 1980s make me a hypocrite today because I despise most Republican politicians and voters and all their fake news sites that are nothing but cancerous clones of Rush Limbaugh’s hate laced BS?
Yesterday I read “Donald Trump Prophet Predicts Death of Democrats: ‘You Will See Many Die'”
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-prophet-julie-green-democrats-arrest-die-viral-video-1778840
Traitor Trump’s traitorous prophet may be right, but how many extremely ignorant, dumb and stupid MAGA RINOs will die attempting to make that prediction a fact?
Many Democrats, including me, have firearms, too, and know how to use them. We are not going to go like sheep to the slaughter.
Jody,
In an era of child murders, sexual abuse in daycare and the omnipresent minefield of juvenile endangerment, I as a divorced working mom sought refuge for my children in the newly established private parochial school in my rural Alabama community. The use of vouchers made me think I could afford it. When I applied for admission of my three children I was summarily turned away because I was black and “not a fit for the organization”. My father, with his 4th grade education, never allowed me to believe my race, marital status or character would exclude me from anything. In retrospect, admission would most likely have increased the possibility of the fate I was trying to avoid for them. But my attempt was certainly apolitical.
Jody,
Thank you!
Jody You don’t know what you are talking about. CBK
Diane My original note is still in m . . . ation. CBK
Aye, there’s the rub! Knowing only what one wants to know and believe and framing every argument to fit it. The conclusion is fixed because there is no further need to question lies that give aid and comfort to one’s bigotries, misconceptions, and concocted fears. Verified facts and historical evidence to the contrary are, by definition, a lie to this person. They believe The Chronicles of Narnia are history and Jim Crow was a myth. Hard to argue with people like that. They represent at least 45% of the American people today. And they want to lock us up and worse and are much closer to power than even they know. But disrupting it as much as possible with lies is the goal. They they become their truths.
GregB Well said. It seems our wonder and drive to question are inborn; and then we spend the rest of our lives trying to extinguish them in the names of security, certainty, and self-justification. CBK
Maya Angelous- “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
The taxpayer should not be forced to spend adequate sums to enable the monitoring of private schools. And, without controls, the taxpayers should not be forced to pay for those schools.
Jody Buckman defends the reprehensible attacks that caused DEATH THREATS against Diane Ravitch, writing that it is DIANE’S OWN FAULT for those attacks, because Jody Buckman says it is an ABSOLUTE TRUE FACT (she knows what is in Diane’s heart and mind) that Diane Ravitch did something to deserve those attacks by “not admitting” to what Jody Buckman “knows” is true. When Jody Buckman says “People don’t buy Diane’s story”, she means that she – Jody Buckman (or some violence-enabling troll that uses that name) does not buy Diane’s story so she supports Fox News telling people what is “true” even if it does cause people to hate Diane Ravitch.
then as a PS — yes as a PS! — she says “No one should threaten you or anyone else with violence” as if the fact that people like Jody Buckman and Fox News keep telling people that Diane Ravitch is a liar who is hurting kids has nothing to do with the fact that people are threatening Diane Ravitch with violence.
It’s the same “theory” that says that just because Trump and the right wing media (and folks like Jody Buckman) kept saying that Biden stole the election from the rightful winner and kept saying “people don’t buy Democrats’ story that Biden won because Trump really won” absolves them of the violent actions that people take when they believe those lies.
So Jody Buckman sounds a lot like people who were fomenting hatred and violence based on a lie who then say it’s not their fault that violent people believed them and acted out violently because they believed them.
It “defies credulity” that Jody Buckman isn’t hoping that someone will act violent toward Diane Ravitch. Her “PS” defies credulity because “people don’t buy” Jody Buckman’s story that her reason for lying about Diane and getting people to hate her isn’t because she wants Diane to feel threatened.
Right, Jody?
NYC
Diane’s readers like me rely on you to zero in on and explain to us in a way that leaves no doubt, the pathology that underlies the deplorables who are Fox’ audience.
You are totally unhinged. I defend the threats against Diane Ravitch? I specifically wrote in my P.S. that no one should be threatened. And the threats, as bad as they are, have very little credibility. Ms. Ravitch does not have the public prominence or the power to affect public opinion that anyone other than the truly mentally ill would even think about killing her. Sad to say, almost everyone with any public presence gets death threats: Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, the late Rush Limbaugh, et al. All threats of violence should be condemned and investigated when those threats are truly serious. BTW, your pigeonholing of my beliefs is wildly inaccurate: I believe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square, and I detest Donald Trump.
Jody,
You repeated the false characterizations that riled people up to threaten Diane Ravitch and asserted that those false characterizations were absolutely true (you were wrong, either intentionally or ignorantly). If you amplify the very same lies that demonized Diane Ravitch and got violent people riled up to threaten her, you sound really disingenuous when you say you don’t support it when the people who believe your false characterization threaten violence against the person you just falsely demonized.
and you are basically acknowledging your guilt by dismissing the violent threats as no big deal because they have little credibility.
You also reveal your own lack of principles when you compare Tucker Carlson, Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham – 3 people who traffic in hate and anger and belittling others – with Diane Ravitch and her carefully phrased writings. Diane doesn’t try to get people to hate anyone, and she certainly doesn’t use lies to do so the way those right wing personalities do.
Diane doesn’t say hateful things. You did. You demonized her with a lie, then absolve yourself of having any responsibility that people respond with violent threats to the false “truths” you told them about Diane because you wanted to demonize her.
The intent of people who FALSELY yell fire in a crowded theater is to get people to believe something untrue that is very likely to cause a reaction. You seem to believe they can absolve themselves of responsibility for the harm they caused if they wag their finger at the stampeding people and say they don’t support that reaction. The intent of the lie was to cause a reaction.
Tell the truth. Stop demonizing good people who don’t agree with you and justifying it by comparing Diane Ravitch with folks like Limbaugh and Tucker who specialize in hate and riling people up.
Thank you for all you do for public schools, Diane, and please be safe
Diane is a threat to the GOP…pure and simple.
All the GOP has are personal attacks filled with NOTHING except LIES.
Lying is the “GOP way.”
Yes. She is a truth-teller. They freaking hate that.
Love what you do! Sorry you are being harassed! Hang in there! You great work!
Mike
So sorry, Diane! Cali
Sent from my iPad
>
The fact that you are a target of Fox News is a sign that you are perceived as a threat to their anti-democratic attempt to destroy public education. While this is little solace to death threats, it is a sign that public opinion is drifting away from their messaging. Fox News is yellow journalism. When all else fails, they resort to personal attacks. The radical right seeks to silence any divergence of opinion. Stay strong, and exercise your first amendment rights!
Hang in there, Diane.
We love you.
Please make sure you contact law enforcement for each and every threat. I don’t know what the laws entail but I can’t imagine that there isn’t some kind of law against making life-threatening threat.
Most states have a law against making terroristic threats that are generally defined as “someone that threatens to commit any crime of violence: With the intent to terrorize another.” I don’t know if this applies to on-line threats as well.
Retired teacher,
The bad side of the internet is that anonymity allows people to say horrible things in person or if they have to sign their name.
Diane “Death threats” are high on the list in the fascist playbook. They are code for: “Intimidation Tactics.” Remain alert, but my bet is that Dark Money pays people to sit at their computer all day long and send death threats to their “hit list” regardless of where they are. Most if not all probably never leave their room or apartment. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to remain diligent anyway, even if there were no threats.
The rich neo-liberals (unelected) among us buy Congress people into office, send them canned, prewritten legislation to sign (ALEC) that is meant to set up the conditions for people to remain poor and ignorant, and so many become conditioned to abandon whatever their good character they have to do anything for money and to “look the other way,” and so they get paid to send threats to people like you, by those whose arrogance is truly stunning.
Also to JODY BUCKMAN, who writes: You are telling people to believe that you essentially gave no thought to your choice – it was just made robotically. Yeah, right: a devoted, very pro-education mother with a doctorate in the history of American education made no comparisons between the traditional public schools in her area and the private schools that were available. You were such a wallflower that you didn’t think for yourself. That defies credulity.
JODY: I don’t know how old you are, but if you are under 40 and are politically aware, your note tells me that you are not HISTORICALLY aware . . . of how it was with women and power before the feminist revolution really took off. I am in the same age-range as Diane and didn’t even START to become politically aware until I was in my 30’s and raising a family. Sheesh . . . when I look back . . .
. . . but NO . . . the situation you describe, whether it applies to Diane or not, does not defy credulity.
Diane: did you hear Boris Johnson talking about Tucker Carlson last week? He said everyone in Congress with an R by their name is scared to death of him. Rupert Murdoch is unelected, but he’s the real power broker and kingmaker here. Kudos to Australia, but we don’t want him either. CBK
Diane: My longer note went to moderation. A toast to you, however, and all that you do for so many. CBK
CBK,
I’m on vacation now on an island where the weather is very pleasant, so I open my phone to scan comments periodically.
Sorry your good comment was held in moderation. I don’t know why. I would have thought that WordPress would not hold comments by people who have commented many times.
You are so right about the tenor of the times in the early 1960. I was very compliant with my husband’s wishes. Seems hard to believe now. But it was a different world. I came from a dysfunctional family that struggled to secure a position in the middle class. I married into a powerful and prestigious NYC family. My then-husband started private school in 1936. Every member of the extended family went to private school. It is, in reality, a great privilege to be able to send your child to a school with a deep curriculum, small classes, and large resources. At the time, I considered myself fortunate that the boys got into this school. At 24, I was not thinking about the future of American education.
Diane Thank you for replying to my note . . . I am often “gob-smacked” when I even think about the way I was and what I accepted back in the day. Enjoy yourself. You deserve it. CBK
I agree with Mr. Swacker…please be safe and stay safe. The crazies are out there whether we like it or not. I do like your final line – that’s all much of the threats are, but one never knows.
Seriously. Take this seriously.
I do agree that one should take threats seriously; one does not, however, know which ones are legitimate. On looking back at my comment, this did not come across as clearly as it could have. Some threats are just those-threats – but one cannot tell the “just words” from the serious intent. Not saying this well at all, but I hope you can understand.
Thank you for the admonition.
Oh my! I did NOT mean this as an admonition, Susan. I was agreeing with you! I thought that that was what you were saying. Warm regards, Bob S.
Yea, team! Diane, we are very happy to have you on the side of PUBLIC education! Thanks for all you do!
Jody—I have no issue with people who send their children to private school. Their money, their choice. The problem is the charter schools whose only innovation is discrimination against needy children, with applications and interviews but no special ed or second language services. They take money from public schools. It is obvious you haven’t read Diane’s books in which she courageously describes her change of heart/mind! You should! You might change, too. You are correct about the harassment and threats. That is completely out of line.
It is also obvious that Jody read some screed and never researched the matter herself. I was amazed to find out that as a young mother ( from a decidedly less privileged background) who married into a wealthy NY family with a tradition of sending their children to private schools would have even thought to question their educational choices. People still choose to send their children to highly selective private schools. I was also interested to see Jody credit Diane with all the experience and education she gained in later years with the ability to apply that knowledge to a situation before she had gained that experience.
Yes, Jody seemed to think I had earned a Ph.D. a year after getting my B.A. Just for accuracy sake, I got my B.A. in 1960, married a few weeks later, had children, then returned to graduate school at the age of 32. I received my Ph.D. In 1975.
No matter what your age, you should not be intimidated.
Roberta, easy to say now, not so easy in 1960.
Diane, you are a woman of courage and principles unlike the vicious bullies who are trying to intimidate you into silence. Thanks for all you do for public education in spite of these low life jackals.
Thank you Diane for all you do. I’m always angered by people who shout “hypocrite” when they discover that someone has had a change of heart or personal philosophy in their lives. Growing up in Texas, I was the son of parents who were Goldwater Republicans. My father ran for county judge as a Republican and when elected became the first Republican county civil court judge in the Lone Star State since Reconstruction. The first political rally I went to as a teenager, before I was legal to vote, was for Richard Nixon. Is it any surprise that when I became of age to register to vote, I registered as a Republican and initially voted for Republican candidates? It wasn’t until my early 20’s that I changed my mind about politics and who to align my beliefs and votes with. It’s more than okay that people change; it shows a capacity for reflection and critical thinking! These attacks on you are appalling, and the people who make them should be ashamed of themselves.
Fifty years ago –
No tax dollars went to private schools.
No tax credits were given to set up a scholarship for kids to go to a private school.
No shell groups, dark money, or politicians lobbied or bought politicians to manipulate laws to divert money from public schools to support private schools.
No one sent kids to private schools to boost their political or social control position of decimating public schools and unions.
Private and parochial choices were always available.
From my point of view, Dr. Ravitch made a choice for private school because she made a choice for private school.
Non-public schools including private are being USED by politicians to promote their agenda, co-opt covid money (some private schools did reject covid funds and did not “double dip.”) and stand for principles that are counter to being civil and accepting in a complex nation.
Many conservative (not radical, just conservative) legislators, civic leaders, university presidents, and others do not agree or align with the current rhetoric spewed about schools and people – – but they do not stand up to the radical and say you’ve crossed a line, this is not who we are (or wait until they retire).
Dr. Ravitch witnessed change, claimed her changing views, called out the “reformers” and the “reform” agenda, and pioneered a public education stance and defended public educators unsurpassed in this century.
Yes, absolutely!
Wait, What, thank you for your comment. I am grateful for your service in an urban district where the vultures have descended.
You’ve been attacked by the Billionaire Boys and Girls Club before, Diane. John Arnold makes millions turned billions at Enron via the same kind of related party transactions that charter networks do, and then threatens to bury you under a mountain of frivolous litigation. Now, Rupert Murdoch spews faux news about you, Diane, and Elon Musk allows the resulting hate speech to be, I assume, tweeted including domestic terrorist threats. In summary, oligarchic billionaires use their wealth to attack pillars of democracy. Childish. They have the money; you, Diane, have the backbone.
Thank you, LCT. No one likes to be attacked, to have their reputation sullied, especially by people who themselves have a bad reputation.
But I have faith that the people who engage in slander get hit by a boomerang. It comes back and hits them and shows who they are.
After the initial broadside, I realized that the attacks were a perverse sort of flattery.
Be proud indeed to be attacked by the gullible followers of Q-Anon et al. May I suggest that this is an opportunity and the possibility of an op-ed on the subject in a less stupid than Faux News news site? Let’s draw a clear line between supporting public schools and crazy.
Jody wrote:
“You are telling people to believe that you essentially gave no thought to your choice – it was just made robotically. Yeah, right: a devoted, very pro-education mother with a doctorate in the history of American education made no comparisons between the traditional public schools in her area and the private schools that were available. You were such a wallflower that you didn’t think for yourself. That defies credulity.”
Jody I am just a little younger than Diane and I wonder if you are quite a bit younger, say, under 40? From reading your note, and though you may be politically aware, my thought is that you are either a misnomer or NOT historically aware . . . of what the power situation was like for women before feminism really took hold.
Your scenario in your note, and whether it’s Diane’s experience or not, does NOT defy credulity. CBK
Diane: my original note hasn’t shown up yet.
Libertarians are enemies of public schools. They are somewhat dependent on voters to affect the change to privatization that they want. The lever being used with the voters is conservative religion. The Nelson attack which provoked the religion-adjacent “slaying” response Diane described, provides an opportunity.
Hobby Lobby’s conservative religious owner wouldn’t be spending millions to re-brand Christ if the public wasn’t turning against the religious right’s creation of an intolerant, anti-woman, and social Darwinist Jesus. Capitalizing on the unwitting outcome of the messaging from conservative religious like Pat Buchanan, Alito and Koch’s Paul Weyrich is important at this time.The public should be made to understand that their freedom, whether its to elect school board members, to pay only for public services not the usurpation of government function by the right wing religious and, to
demand equal opportunity enrollment is under threat when church is not separate from state.
Diane The below is a relevant snip from a recent interview with Jamie Raskin, with a link to the whole interview and also a video of another interview on MSNBC. (All copied below)
“Supreme Court’s ‘anti-democratic’ crusade
“Rubin: Twenty years ago you published a book called ‘Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People.’ That sounds like a book that could be written today with the same title. How do you assess the Supreme Court since then and its impact on democracy now?
“Raskin: Well, I do think that the Supreme Court has positioned itself as a very powerful anti-democratic instrument and force in our constitutional culture. And by that I don’t mean that they strike down laws or strike down public enactments, because, of course, that’s built into the idea of the Supreme Court and judicial review. Rather, I mean the Supreme Court has proven itself to be an enemy of one person, one vote political democracy. It has rendered a whole series of decisions that undermine the right to vote that have put the Voting Rights Act into a straitjacket and that have basically rejected the democratic values that should be governing the electoral system.
“So we’ve got a very serious problem with the Supreme Court acting as a reactionary instrument against political equality and the political rights of the people. And that’s only gotten more serious with the Citizens United decision, which elevates corporate political rights over individual political rights and inflates the power of corporations to the size of a Goodyear blimp.
“Rubin: So that sounds like a premise that could support wanting to add seats to the Supreme Court. Is that a position that you would then support, given the view that you’ve laid out?
“Raskin: Well, the size of the Supreme Court has changed nine different times, I believe. There’s nothing in the Constitution that defines the size of the Supreme Court as nine justices. It has been seven, it’s been five, the numbers change. This is obviously a profoundly gerrymandered and jerry rigged Supreme Court because they kept my constituent, Merrick Garland, currently the Attorney General, off of the Supreme Court, although when he was nominated, as Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit, he was perhaps the most qualified person who’s been nominated to the Supreme Court in many decades, and they didn’t even give him a hearing.
“So there had been all of these bizarre tamperings with the process, and you now have a six to three right-wing majority in the Supreme Court that’s built on nominations from presidents like George W. Bush, like Donald Trump, who were elected with a minority of the popular vote. You’ve got the Supreme Court that is way to the right of the American people and hands down decisions that are extremely unpopular, like the Dobbs decision overturning more than a half century of Supreme Court precedent upholding the right of a woman to choose an abortion in consultation with her physician and her family. So we have a real crisis of constitutional legitimacy of the Supreme Court. That is a profound problem.”
More at the below link:
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/jamie-raskin-trump-jan-6-mccarthy-rcna68990?cid=nt_npd_ms_as_ms_220127
Love you honesty and your continued defense of public schools & democracy.
Thank you!
Congratulations! you seem to have caused the Fax News to forget, if only for a moment, about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Who knows. Maybe we will find your laptop somewhere.
Take care of yourself. Realizing that public figures are always the target of death threats from those whose oars do not reach he water, you should stil be cautious and report to the authorities.
Diane, kudos for standing up for public education. You are a role model for whom I have had great respect from the first day I met you. Your support for NAEP over the years is greatly respected. I may join you in the threat department when my forthcoming book goes to press in the coming months. It focuses primarily on the Report Card growth in prominence during the first decade of this century. However, several chapters zero in on the failure of Common Core and other political missteps that have led to serious decline in student performance. Hang tough, as I know you will, and best wishes.
Charles Smith
csmiththebrave@hotmail.com
Charles, thank you! The misuse of NAEP scores by pundits and privatizers is an ongoing scandal. People like Michelle Rhee and whoever wrote “Waiting for Superman” think that “proficient” on NAEP=grade level. I have explained many times that this is not true, that “proficient” is strong achievement, but the myth persists. I look forward to reading your new book.
Bravo, Diane Ravitch! Hero!
Thank you, Robin!
congrats on the book, Robin!!! xoxoxoxoxo!!!!!
Ms. Ravitch, I’m very sorry to hear that this is happening. When I’ve received these types of letters I always marvel at what a job conservative/anti-union forces have done on these people’s heads. The emails with the subject line “F*** You”, the needlessly aggressive tone. If Fox & Co were honest, they’d admit they oppose teachers unions because we usually support Democrats. If teachers unions backed Republicans, the media currently attacking you would instead describe teachers as working-class heroes fighting Herculean odds to educate America’s troubled youth.
Best Wishes, Glenn Sacks email: glenn@glennsacks.com
Dear Glenn,
Thank you for your support. I have received a number of comments on this blog that used vile language. I try to delete them as soon as I see them.
You are right about the motive of the far-right.
They hate unions, and they won’t rest only they smash them all, esp the teachers’ unions. That is the purpose of TFA and charters, and why they are both funded by the Walton family billionaires.
That you so publicly put yourself out there as your views evolved is enough, Diane. Then there is this blog from which I have simply learned so much. TFA wasn’t even on my radar a few years ago. Nor were the National Parents Union, McKinsey, ALEC & all the other anti-union, anti-teacher, anti-public-ed Billionaire Boys Club-funded groups. Nor the public-when-you-want-it-plus-private-when-want-it PPP loans for ‘non profits’. You, Carol, Mercedes et al. have superbly connected dots for me/us. Fearlessly. (Thanks for validating my being a public school, union-strong mainly-Latin teacher as well.)
Testing as we know it hijacked public education a generation ago here in FL & elsewhere. Entire industries formed to make a profit off of ‘quantifiable’ student failure. You expose this systemization that has boldly become a new status quo (that claims to fight THE status quo). That’s where the absurd threats against you come from.
I often imagine what ONE salary of a non-profiteer could do: actually send 30 of my Latin students to Italy & Greece each Spring Break. Not likely to happen. Still, you remind us of the promise of public education in our fiercely proud public neighborhood high school. You help us re-set, re-focus & re-affirm. We are still strong. Be safe.
Thank you, Kelley. Your words give me added strength to carry on. We must stand up against bullies and grifters.
•It’s unthinkable that anyone should threaten you.
•Chuckling to imagine that Betsy DeVos would read anything to learn about education.
I am so outraged on your behalf, Diane Ravitch. Please stay safe.
And I hope some public interest attorney might take on a lawsuit on behalf of Diane against Fox News, citing the fact that any error in the story directly caused threats.
One reason that the right wing media so frequently demonizes people like Diane Ravitch who tell truths that they don’t like – one reason the media so frequently amplifies lies and false characterizations that result in their viewers threatening violence – is that they get away with it with virtually no consequences.
The many lawsuits and attacks on the so-called “liberal” mainstream media from the right has meant that the so-called liberal mainstream media bends over backwards – with both sides equal reporting – to avoid being even the least bit critical of the Republicans. It doesn’t matter how often the Republicans spew falsehoods — the so-called liberal media will present it as an inadvertent error or honest difference of opinion.
But the right wing media has no such restraint. And until they are held accountable, they will get worse and worse until it is NO LONGER POSSIBLE to hold them accountable for their lies because democracy will no longer exist and lies will be truth. Our “democracy” will look like Russia, with an autocratic leader or party and dissent no longer allowed.
On the very rare occasions a very deep pocket can fight the legal system in court, some of the lies stop. Dominion sued Fox for 1.6 billion. And it is making a difference in what Fox has said about them since. I don’t know if Dominion will win, but it has made a difference. Just like the many, many lawsuits and threats against the so-called liberal media made a difference.
So I wish some public interest legal group could sue Fox on behalf of Diane Ravitch and the threats she is getting because of a Fox News report. Is there is even the smallest error in that report? Maybe the lawsuit won’t be successful, but it’s time for people being hurt and threatened with violence to try to hold those responsible to account. And those who are responsible are those who are amplifying lies to rile up people who were previously not threatening to act violently against that person before Fox News riled them up. When the direct response to a Fox News story is people making violent threats when Diane has rarely (I assume) received violent threats before, then something is wrong with the story and one way to de-incentivize those who write those kinds of stories is to make them realize they will be held to account – morally and publicly – regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit.
Only one word, my dear Diane:
Deplorables.
Indeed!
Oy gevalt! I am so sorry, Diane.
Diane, you have such strength of character. I was amazed to hear you say above that you come from a dysfunctional family– that’s been my rationale for why I curl up in a tiny ball if personally attacked. You are the role model for what it takes to be a leader. Thank you.
agreed
Please view the vitriol of Fox fabulists as the badge of honor and courage it truly is. I always return here for your unerring moral clarity whenever times get tough and I question why I became a teacher. Thank you for your unrelenting commitment to teachers and to public education!!
Diane and All I happened to be in the bank the other day. As I stood in line, a conversation ensued about late-night hosts, and so I mentioned Johnny Carson. No one in the line knew who Johnny Carson was.. . .I asked.
That, and our recent conversation with Jody here, reminded me of the power of ideas (that feminism and teaching Black History, as examples, rightly seek to change); as well as how time and memory work, sometimes to subtly erase some things while moving others forward.
Ideas and absences of them are powerful things. It’s probably something that all educators would be wise to keep close to the front row of the seating in our awareness as we face so many different experiences and backgrounds.
In that context, I have often thought that projection (of one’s own viewpoint and history of experience) is a, if not THE, major flaw in 20th and now 21st century thinking. CBK
CBK,
That’s one reason we must teach history. Without it, events cannot be put into perspective. We are amnesiacs without history.
Callisto, thank you! Being attacked by the minions of DeSantis and DeVos is indeed a badge of honor!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wrote this back in 2017. Time to reprise it
Our Boadicea, Our Jeanne d’Arc, Is a 79-year-old Grandmother, an Existence Proof of the Stupidity of Ageism
On this Labor Day, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the Herculean labors of Diane Ravitch. Dr. Ravitch has for many years now been the most significant force for sanity in all of U.S. K-12 education. Day in and day out, she indefatigably calls out the charlatans and grifters on the education carnival midway and fights to protect our most important institution, our public schools. In addition to being our foremost historian of education, she has also become our premier muckraker–the Ambrose Bierce, Ida B. Wells, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Nelly Bly, and Upton Sinclair of our age. God bless her. My admiration and respect for this brilliant, fierce, relentless fighter for justice and equity in U.S. education, for our Boadicea, our Jeanne d’Arc, knows no bounds.
And yes, it is just like these creeps on the right to attack 84-year-old grandmothers.
She has more courage and brains that all of them put together.
I follow Chris Ruffo on Twitter specifically so I know what lies will be rolling down BS Mountain.
Chris Rufo was just another right wing nobody until he found his meal ticket—critical race theory.
Yes!
So you get death threats just because your kids went to private school?
Yes. Almost 60 years ago, before most of them were born.
I don’t how to frame this but there needs to be a distinction between free speech and propaganda. I am so frustrated hearing/seeing liberals just resign themselves to accepting the trough of twisted invective that flows out of faux news and their vile brethren under the epitaph “Well that’s the cost of free speech…”
P.S. Diane your response to these fools is both dignified and graceful. I could only hope to have the same forbearance were this to ever be my lot…
Thank you, jeclark67. When you get old enough, you have learned to forebear.