“It was not local teachers and principals and school board members who decided

that states should increase the number of privately managed charter schools. The big

foundations made that decision. It was not teachers and administrators who demanded

merit pay, but business leaders. It was not educators who demanded that teachers

should be evaluated by student test scores, but economists who think that test scores

are the best and possibly the only measure of school performance. Nor was it teachers

or principals or local school board members who proposed to turn around struggling

schools by closing them. Nor was it locals who want to change the basic principal of

federal aid by awarding it to states based on a competition, rather than sending the

money to the schools and the districts to serve the neediest students.”

Formerly a supporter of NCLB, Diane Ravitch has made an about-face and is now a fierce opponent of both NCLB and Race to the Top. In February, she gave a keynote at the AASA conference in Denver, Colorado. She defended teachers and public education and came out strongly against the current attack on public education. The speech is a bit long, but it is well-worth the read for those of us who advocate for the average citizen getting a proper education.