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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The Herald-Sun - Ravitch Education not about ‘winners and losers’

The Herald-Sun - Ravitch Education not about ‘winners and losers’:

Ravitch: Education not about ‘winners and losers’
10.03.11 - 10:58 pm
By Melody Guyton Butts

mbutts@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM — Education scholar and activist Diane Ravitch drew an estimated 1,100 people to Duke University’s Page Auditorium on Monday with a talk that challenged education reform efforts that she called “dangerous to the future of public education.”

Referring to such measures as the federal Race to the Top program — for which Ravitch said she’s “very sorry that your state won funding” — and the charter school movement, schools shouldn’t be managed like goods and services in the free market, a mindset that doesn’t produce equality, she said.

“The goal of our schools should be to raise up every child, not to get winners and losers,” she said. “We should treat every single child as a unique individual. We should