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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Update: An Important P.S. to the “Schools-Are-Too-Easy” Claim « Diane Ravitch's blog

An Important P.S. to the “Schools-Are-Too-Easy” Claim « Diane Ravitch's blog:



Romney Loves Charters

A reader writes:
I just finished watching Mitt Romney’s speech to the NAACP. I would say that more time was spent talking about education, and he used charter schools as the solution to the problem. It was essentially a “why charters are great” speech.  I wish his people would read this post by you. If charters are so successful with these policies, why not grant traditional public schools the same privileges? Oh, it’s not about these policies. It is about busting the union and getting rid of the older ($$$) teachers.
I reviewed Romney’s education plan in the New York Review of Books. It’s a blueprint for privatizing education at every level. Romney buys the phony narrative that our schools are failing and don’t need any new money. He says we spend enough already. But he plans to ask for new money for charters, vouchers, and online schools. In 



An Important P.S. to the “Schools-Are-Too-Easy” Claim

I posted a very important commentary this morning by researcher Ed Fuller of Penn State University about the Center for American Progress’ “study” claiming that American schools are “too easy.” Fuller is an expert at statistical analysis and he pulled the study apart to show that the best students said it was “too easy” and that the conclusions of the report were unfounded.
Fuller sent me the following postscript and I thought it was too important to bury as a P.S. in the original post. What he writes is symptomatic of education commentary in general. Everyone is an “expert” when it comes to education because they were once in school. Everyone who has made a lot of money in real estate or insurance or technology or selling shlock feels they have the right to “reform” the schools attended by Other People’s


How to Make Big Money in Education

It’s not too late to register for a full-day conference where you can learn how to get rich investing in education.You can still register to find out how big equity investors are making profits in education and plan to make even more.
Of course, you must come up with $1,395 if you want to be there. Or you can shell out only $495 to get the audio.
You can rub shoulders or elbows or knees with middle-size names on Wall Street. Real live hedge fund managers, the guys who think that charter schools will save the schools from lazy tenured teachers who get paid just to have years of experience and degrees.
The location is secret, for obvious reasons. Wouldn’t want the rabble to walk around with signs protesting the