The Billionaire Boys Club
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011In her book last year, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”, Diane Ravitch dismissively described the wealthy philanthropists who are bankrolling various efforts to improve the otherwise taxpayer funded school system as the “billionaire boys club”. She argues that the likes of Bill Gates, the Walton family (heirs of the founder of Wal-Mart) and Eli Broad have failed to improve America’s schools system, even whilst wielding considerable anti-democratic influence within it. As she put it in one interview, when asked about her thoughts on the role of philanthrocapitalism: “The power and influence of those foundations challenges democratic control of public education. Are their market-based policies working? It all depends on what one means by ‘working.’ If it means raising test scores, the evidence is not conclusive. If it means strengthening public education, the answer is no.”
We profoundly disagree with Ms Ravitch’s analysis, which is delivered with all the zealotry
