Diane Ravitch in Harper’s Magazine
Diane Ravitch expresses more in two sentences than most people can state in two chapters.
In the October issue of Harper’s Magazine a cover story, “PBS Self-Destructs: and what it means to viewers like you” by Eugenia Williamson, describes the full history of the takeover of Public Broadcasting by the Koch Brothers, Bloomberg, the Gates Foundation and other billionaire owned and controlled corporations and their tax-free foundations.
Diane Ravitch was asked about the lack of even-handed news coverage regarding the so-called education reform movement, in particular PBS coverage of charter schools which are invested in by these same billionaires and their tax-free foundations. (Yes, these tax-free foundations all have hedge funds and investments that make enormous profits that stay within the foundations. The appointed or board elected officers and trustees are paid enormous amounts of money and other compensation.)
“‘We’ve had public schools since the 1820’s,’ Ravitch added, ‘and we’ve never had a moment in history where the U.S. Department of Education and the big philanthropists together wanted to replace our public education system with privately managed schools. It’s a whole new thing! And PBS doesn’t seem interested.'”
The article is an eye-opening historical overview and a brilliant presentation of the corporatization of America, especially its public news and information media, by a handful of billionaires.
Also, Diane Ravitch’s latest book, Reign of Error: the hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America’s public schools, explains even more in well researched detail.