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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Diane Ravitch: Union speaking fees did not change my mind | GothamSchools

Diane Ravitch: Union speaking fees did not change my mind | GothamSchools

Diane Ravitch: Union speaking fees did not change my mind

Is Diane Ravitch a “paid union spokesperson,” her famous change of heart inspired by fees from the teachers union?

The accusation, levied by the philanthropist and hedge-fund manager Whitney Tilson recently, draws from a new book about the education reform movement by Steven Brill. But the suggestion that she was bought is simply not accurate, Ravitch told GothamSchools. Brill, in an interview, also insisted it’s not the conclusion that his new book, “Class Warfare,” aims to draw.

In a short passage about Ravitch, one of the leading critics of the reform movement, Brill writes that she