The Case Against School Privatization

Former Asst. Secy. of Education under President George H.W. Bush, Diane Ravitch, discusses why she became a critic of “No Child Left Behind” after supporting it, and she discusses her new book “Reign of Error.”
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The Transcript…

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> that we’re funding education so that teachers have the support that they need so, that they can support their own families so, that they’re not having to dig into their pockets for school supplies, and we’ve got to show them the respect and provide pathways of excellence for teerps so that they’re treated like the professionals that they are. it is a hard job. and we’ve got to make sure we’re investing in them.

>> that was president obama yesterday stepping into the intense debate over education reform as he spoke at pathways and technology early college high school in brooklyn, new york. this debate has been raging since president george w. bush first introduced the no child left behind initiative. one of its biggest champions at the time was education scholar diane ravech who served as the assistant secretary of education under president george h.w. bush . then she changed her mind, became a chief critic of no child left behind , particularly its emphasis on testing, arguing it did little to improve public education . in her new book, “reign of error,” she takes on school privatization. she writes, ” public education is a basic responsibility. we must not be persuaded by a false crisis narrative to privatize it. it is time for parents, educator, and other concerned citizens to join together to strengthen our public schools and preserve them for future generations . the future of our democracy depends on it.” and diane ravitch joins me now. i am so pleased to have you here. i spent a lot of time with the book over the course of the past week. talk to me about why public, truly public education matters.

>> public education is one of the public services that our society provides. we have police, fire, protection, public parks , public schools . it’s one of the basic things a democracy does. the high performing nations of the world don’t have vouchers, they have professional teachers in a public school system where the emphasis has been on equity, on making sure that every school is a good school. it’s hard to do that. it’s costly. but it’s far cheaper to do that than it is to pay for kids going to prison and having all the ills that our society has. so public schools are crucial to a democracy.

>> one of the things you spend about the first third of the book or so doing is really taking apart empirically the claims about the great crisis, what others have called the manufactured crisis of public education , this notion that it is failing. in fact, you demonstrate that when we look at high school education rates, there has been an enormous up tick in high school education in this country. you suggest also that we should be very careful about looking at those international comparisons and you say, hey, actually saying that we don’t test as well as some other countries is not about what we know or what we’re capable of. why do so many people believe that we’re in a crisis if we’re not?

>> first of all, what i demonstrate using u.s. department of education data is that test scores in this country have never been higher than they are today for black children, white children, hispanic children, and asian children. high school graduation rates are at their highest point in history. the dropout rate is at its lowest point in history, and yet i am fiercely critical of the status quo because the status quo is built on this notion which has been built up over 30 years that we’re failing, our schools are faying and therefore we should just do anything that it takes to demolish public education because it’s a disaster. so i argue it is not a disaster. the status quo that we have which is test and test, privatize and privatize, throw money at consultants instead of schools, when we e talk about the rising cost of education so, much of the money is going to people who are telling teachers how to teach, telling principals how to lead, telling schools how to turn themselves around, huge amounts of money are being siphoned off that are not going into schools. and so there are practical things we should do because there is a crisis, a real crisis, poverty, and the people who call themselves reformers say don’t look at poverty, and that’s wrong.

>> let me ask you, there’s a new anti-testing petition signed by a large group of people including judy bloome and maya angelou, people who i think of as deep educators at their core. the pe situation says in part we call on you to support authentic performance assessments, not simply computerized versions of multiple choice exams. we also urge you to reverse the narrowing curriculum.” how are no child left behind founded under a republican demonstration, and race to the top , founded under a democratic administration, both colluded in this testing on the basis of which we judge all our schools?

>> unfortunately, you know, many of us had hoped that when president obama was elected we hoped no child left behind would be scrapped. it’s terrible program. everybody says it’s failed. but race to the top is based on the same premises as no child left behind , that is we must race to get higher test scores . the test scores can be — you can coach kids the way you can coach parents, coach seals. you can train people to get higher test scores . what we find in all these international tests is that there are certain asian countries that have a test taking culture, and when their kids come here, they say they come here for the freedom. they come here for the spirit. they come here for the opportunity to use their imagination, their creativity, and that’s what the top part of america is. it’s not the ability to check off the box and to say i got one out of four answer correctly. it’s thinking out of the box.

>> yep.

>> so we’re crushing that. that’s what those writers were talking about. what’s happening to their books is that they’re being assigned as excerpts.

>> yes.

>> and many teachers are saying — and i don’t know if this is common core , which is this national standards, many of the teachers are saying i no longer assign full novels. who writes a novel they haven’t read as one chanter?

>> yeah. you know, your point about no child left behind , we’ve seen the flexibility that was granted under president obama , nearly every state in the country when you look at the map has, in fact, asked for flexibility to push back. everything you see in blue there. we know at this moment it’s not working. when we come back, i want to add some other voices to the table as well, because part — i think the book is so useful. i also want to ask whether or not you think that folks are in this because they really just don’t know any better but they legitimately believe they’re doing what’s right or if you think there are more nefarious motives and again how we address what the crisis in public education is. stay with

The conversation continues {title size=”3″]How charter schools can lead to disparity[/fusion_title] The MHP panel continues its discussion on education and school privatization and why charter schools aren’t necessarily the way to fix problems with public schools. Pedro Noguera and Trymaine Lee discuss.