Kudos to Diane Ravitch for Owning Up to Her Mistakes » Laura and John Arnold -
Recently, Diane Ravitch posted on her blog an egregious personal attack against me, ostensibly regarding my and Laura’s efforts to keep Head Start programs open during the recent government shutdown. Professor Ravitch, among other things, accused me of “fleecing” Enron investors and sought to link me — through outright misstatements, innuendo and implication — to disgraced Enron executives and their criminal activity. What she wrote was intentionally defamatory and contained outright lies about my background.
Laura and I spend the majority of our time on philanthropy. Several years ago, we co-founded the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which seeks to effect transformative change in some of our nation’s most pressing and complex policy areas, including education, criminal justice, research integrity, public accountability and health care. The issues that we address, both personally and through LJAF, are at times enormously complicated and controversial. Reasonable minds can intensely disagree on everything from how to define a problem to how to solve it. We therefore expect, and welcome, vigorous debate on every issue in which we are involved. We expect opponents of our policy proposals to criticize our work, and to do so passionately. That is the essence of our democracy — vigorous public discourse and debate in every forum.
When we committed to do this work, we accepted the reality that “vigorous public discourse” would inevitably include unsavory and unfair commentary from those who opposed our positions. We believe in and are proud of our work, and we are therefore
LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 11-14-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | Teachers: Please Submit Your Ideas for the Laura and John Arnold Foundation
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: A Wonderful Review of “Reign of Error”This is one of the best reviews of “Reign of Error” that I have read. Because it was written as an editorial, it didn’t go into close detail, as others have, but it went right to the point: What she claims is that many tried-and-true practices work; many new-fangled innovations now favored by
An Apology to John Arnold
On October 10, I posted a column about John Arnold, a billionaire who supports charter schools, TFA, and similar projects. I noted that he was giving $10 million to keep Headstart centers open during the government shutdown. In that column, I quoted investigative journalist David Sirota, who said that Arnold was trying to buy good will to divert attention from his efforts to cut the pensions of retirees (aka, pension reform).
A lawyer contacted me on behalf of Mr. Arnold and asked me to correct factual inaccuracies in that post. Arnold did not leave Enron with $3 billion. He left before the firm collapsed with $8 million, which a judge later reduced to $4 million. According to his lawyer, he made $3 billion as a hedge fund investor after he left Enron.
So, I apologize for saying that Arnold left Enron with $3 billion and that he “fleeced” Enron investors. He did not.
We disagree about education reform and pension reform.
I always strive for accuracy and am quite willing to correct any errors I have made.
I am delighted to learn that John Arnold reads my blog and hope that he will continue to do so.