The Walton money, through the ideological arm it founded at the University of Arkansas and the lobby group it finances in Little Rock, pretty well sets the tone for most discussion of “education reform” in Arkansas. Don’t expect that gang to be paying an honorarium to hear from, for example, Diane Ravitch.
Good profile on her currently in the Washington City Paper.
Once a vocal proponent of No Child Left Behind, charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay for teachers, Ravitch decided sometime around 2006 that there was actually no evidence that any of those policies improved American education. She now believes that the “corporatist agenda” of school choice, teacher layoffs, and standardized testing has undermined public respect for one of the nation’s most vital institutions, the neighborhood school, and for one of society’s most crucial professions: teaching.
The best way to improve American education, the post-epiphany Ravitch argues, is to fight child poverty with health care, jobs, child care, and affordable housing.
She’s also a prolific Twitterer.
And she blogs here. A sample follows: