Author criticizes Jindal education plan
Guest speaker Diane Ravitch delivers her keynote address during the School Board Association Meeting at the Cajundome Convention Center on Thursday in Lafayette.
LAFAYETTE — Gov. Bobby Jindal and several other governors across the country have bought into an education reform plan that won't work, a nationally recognized education advisor and author told members of the Louisiana School Boards Association on Thursday.
Diane Ravitch, who says she once supported vouchers, charter schools and standardized testing for grading schools, says she reversed her opinions when she found "they don't work."
"It's the wrong way to go," she said. "Public education is in a state of crisis, in a fight for survival."
But Louisiana Superintendent
of Education John White, a
strong supporter of the changes Jindal wants the Legislature to approve in the legislative session that starts March 12, says Ravitch is wrong. He said the current school operations are failing, so "we need solutions and we need change.
"It's an easy thing to show up at a speech and poke holes in other