There is a lot that Diane Ravitch has said and written in recent years that is admirable. She has been a consistent defender of teacher unionism and a critic of the worst aspects of NCLB and its associated testing craziness.
But then she turns around and with Obama having less than a month in office Ravitch claims he is the third term of George Bush when it comes to education.
That’s a claim that is just dumb.
I guess I would take her assertions more seriously if she weren’t:
- A senior fellow at the right-wing Hoover Institute.
- A former assistant secretary of education in the Bush I administration, where according to her own CV, she “led the federal effort to promote the creation of state and national academic standards.”
- A board member of the wing-nut Fordham Institute.
I assume people can change. And maybe she just hasn’t gotten around to re-evaluating her relationship with what must surely be the most reactionary bunch in the field of education. But it might be a good idea to do that before comparing Obama to Bush.
Fred Klonsky 