Public Employee Press

Diane Ravitch's for schools

Raising charter school profits and inflating test scores have replaced encouraging thinking ability and growth as the new standards in education - and that change is failing children miserably, according to education expert Diane Ravitch.

Ravitch's new book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," examines schools in cities from San Diego to New York and concludes that the policies she devised as U.S. Secretary of Education are contributing to the demise of public education.

The failure of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law to help schools meet its draconian 2014 deadlines amounts to a potential "timetable for the demolition of public education in the United States," Ravitch writes. This "toxic flaw in NCLB" moved her to repudiate positions on education reform she once staunchly advocated.

Her analysis of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's seizure of control over public education, and his appointment of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, a lawyer with no educational experience, is that these moves helped create more charter schools, close public schools and exclude parental involvement, steps that have had devastating effects on neighborhoods and local schools.

Ravitch faults Bloomberg and Klein for concentrating on the charters and losing focus on the city's responsibility to educate all children and fix failing public schools. Bloomberg's business model approach to education, she concludes, is politically expedient but imperils America's future.

"Public education is a vital institution in our democratic society, and its governance must be democratic, open to public discussion and public participation," she writes.

Ravitch presents a well-documented look at education policies that test children but fail to nurture and teach them. The book dissects the push for privatization and education policies that favor financial and political gains for a few and leave behind the majority of children.

— Diane S. Williams