Obama’s education policies are a ‘disaster,’ Diane Ravitch tells Hillary Clinton
For some time now, Diane Ravitch has been hoping to get a chance to speak with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton about public education policy. Finally, she did.
The meeting was not long, and Ravitch did not mince any words, telling her that President Obama’s education corporate-reform policies have been “a disaster.” Ravitch, describing the recent conversation, said in an email:
I am supporting her vigorously in this election but have no idea what she will do about K12 education. My first statement when I met her last Sunday [Aug. 28] was, “The Obama education policies have been a disaster. I hope you will go in a different direction.” She nodded her head “yes, yes, yes.” I told her that she must rethink federal support for charters because they are becoming the new segregation academies, especially in the South, and taking us back to pre-1954. She was surprised. She has probably heard no criticism of charters from staff.
It’s not clear what Clinton was agreeing with, or if she was agreeing at all with Ravitch but simply acknowledging that she was listening. The Clinton campaign, asked to respond, did not dispute the account.
Ravitch is an education historian, a research professor at New York University and a best-selling author. Her 2010 book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” lifted her to the position of titular leader of the growing movement against corporate school reform, which includes standardized test-based “accountability” systems for schools, school “choice” and the privatization of public education. The book, which she updated this year, described her conversion from a conservative reformer who had worked in the Education Obama’s education policies are a ‘disaster,’ Diane Ravitch tells Hillary Clinton - The Washington Post: