Diane Ravitch Rebukes Education Activists' 'Reign Of Error'
Diane Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education, spent years advocating for an overhaul of the American education system. She supported the No Child Left Behind Act, the charter school movement and standardized testing.
But Ravitch recently — and very publicly — changed her mind. She looked at the data and decided that the kinds of changes she'd supported weren't working. Now she's a prominent critic of things like charter schools and school choice — and she's particularly opposed to privatizing schools.
Her new book, Reign of Error, lambastes the idea of replacing public schools with for-profit institutions. She tells NPR's Steve Inskeep, "When people pay taxes for schools, they don't think they're paying off investors. They think they're paying for smaller class sizes and better teachers."
Interview Highlights
On why she disagrees with the charter school movement
What's wrong with charter schools is that they originally were supposed to be created to collaborate with public schools and help them solve common problems. Because they have now been taken over by the idea of competition, they have become part of the movement to turn education into a consumer product rather than a social and a public responsibility. ...
What I mean is that you go shopping for a school. I don't believe in school choice. I believe that