Diane Ravitch discussing her book, “Reign of Error,” on stage in Stanford’s Memorial Hall. Credit: Barbara McKenna, SCOPE
Diane Ravitch was at Stanford University on Monday to discuss her most recent book,“Reign of Error,” which argues that American schools are doing better than public discourse suggests.
Ravitch told a standing-room-only crowd at Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium that what she called the “privatization movement,” which includes reforms such as charter schools run by private companies, is a “hoax.”
“Somehow reform has turned into a process that includes … closing public schools, turning public dollars over to private entrepreneurs and pretending test scores are the most important part of public schooling,” Ravitch said.
See Jonathan Kozol’s New York Times review of “Reign of Error” here.
After a career as a distinguished education historian, Ravitch emerged as a prominent figure in education policy in the early ’90s when she worked as an assistant secretary of education under then-President George H.W. Bush. At the time, she thought charter schools could be a useful laboratory for trying out new ideas that could then be incorporated into public schools. That has
