Atticusblog
Education
Diane Ravitch has a most unusual conversation with a billionaire school reformer

Regular readers of this weblog know Diane Ravitch. The education historian and activist has been the titular leader of the movement in opposition to corporate faculty reform for the reason that guide of her 2010 book, “The demise and lifestyles…

Regular readers of this weblog know Diane Ravitch. The education historian and activist has been the titular leader of the movement in opposition to corporate faculty reform for the reason that guide of her 2010 book, “The demise and lifestyles of the notable American faculty system,” which info why she stopped helping No child Left behind and standardized take a look at-based totally college reform. Ravitch’s book popularized the word “The Billionaire Boys membership” with a chapter that describes the role of the 3 foundations which have spent the maximum cash in okay-12 education reform: the bill & Melinda Gates Basis, the Eli and Edythe broad foundation, and the Walton circle of relatives foundation.

The three foundations are hardly the best ones within the schooling reform area, and many extremely wealthy people have been pouring cash into reform tasks for years now. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, for example, gave $one hundred million to the Newark public faculties — a good deal of it wasted — and is now planning, together with his wife, Priscilla Chan, to open a non-public, lessons-loose school for low-income children in East Palo Alto, Calif., to integrate health care and aid for households with classroom gaining knowledge of.

Whitney Tilson is a billionaire hedge fund supervisor who has long been involved in faculty reform. Among different businesses, he was a founder of educating For the united states and Democrats for training Reform.education

It seems Ravitch and Tilson — who hold a few hugely exceptional views on many reform problems — communicate once in a while and lately had a rather uncommon conversation approximately faculty reform on their respective blogs (hers is here, and he is here). Ravitch posted all of it and gave me permission to republish it.

This is how Ravitch delivered the verbal exchange on her blog:

Whitney Tilson is one of the founders of Democrats for training Reform. He’s a hedge fund manager. He’s on the board of KIPP within the Bronx. He helped to launch educate For us. He is not a probable ally for me. However, he’s a very clever and forthright person. Whilst he lambasted the for-profit digital constitution chain for the inferior training it presents, he despatched me his remarks, and I applauded him. More recently, we have exchanged emails approximately the abominable bathroom bill in North Carolina, which he opposes as I do. I’ve never met Whitney, but our emails have been very cordial, so I don’t forget him as a gentleman (irrespective of what he has written about me on his weblog). He was gentleman sufficient to indicate that we alternate views, and he initiated the talk by using sending me a list of statements that represent what he believes. I answered, closing out the communique after nighttime closing night. Plainly Whitney never sleeps, as he posted the exchange immediately this morning. He has promised to put in writing a reaction to my feedback. Whilst he does, I’m able to publish them too. I have to say that I was very impressed by using his willingness to the nation that constitution schools should be predicted to accept the entire variety of children, not just folks who can get excessive ratings. That may be a huge leap forward, and I wish that his views resonate. I also hope that this exchange is widely studied. My best regret is that I disregarded to thank him for starting up it. It was a bold step, and I welcome the opportunity to perceive the regions in agreement and the regions where we disagree.
Right here is how Tilson added the verbal exchange on his weblog:

Forestall, THE PRESSES!!!

RELATED ARTICLES :

I’ve had numerous thrilling conversations in my existence – and this ongoing one with Diane Ravitch absolutely ranks up there.

If I recall effectively, we first exchanged emails a few years ago when I sent her my presentation about K12, the lousy for-income online charter faculty operator. I knew we’d have commonplace ground there, as she’d also exposed K12’s misdeeds in her book, Reign of error Great Gossip.

I reached out to her once more lately due to the fact I knew we’d have not unusual views on North Carolina’s hateful HB2 law (in fact, we’ve both now posted articles within the Huffington submit on this; here’s mine: An Open Letter to a North Carolina State Legislator; and here’s hers: That Dumb bathroom invoice in North Carolina).

Our not unusual views were given me wondering: how is it that two well-knowledgeable human beings can agree on so much in almost all areas, yet reputedly disagree on a lot in a single place (ed reform)? Is it possible that we agree on something greater than we think?

So I despatched her the email beneath, in which I wrote 24 statements about which I idea we would agree, and requested if she’d respond, inside the hopes that we’d each research something, find greater regions of agreement in which we should work together, and, in well-known, attempt to tone matters down.

She was kind enough to answer, so I have blanketed her comments (in blue), interspersed, and on the end of my original email (shared together with her permission, of course).

Universal, I used to be heartened to peer how many things we agree on.

That stated, we nonetheless disagree on many things, approximately which I will respond in due time. However, within the interests of keeping this electronic mail to a workable duration, I’ll allow her to have the final phrase right here – however, now not the final word, as we’ve each dedicated to continuing (and sharing) our ongoing dialogue.

Within the interim, I hope you’ll find our preliminary change as interesting and illuminating as I did.

About the author

Related Posts