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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Conflict Creates Better Education Results? - San Jose Inside

Conflict Creates Better Education Results? - San Jose Inside:


Conflict Creates Better Education Results?

Posted by Joseph DiSalvo on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 Comments (0)

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Diane Ravitch objects to the infusion of outside, “entrepreneurial” dollars in public education, but local results show competition has had a positive effect.


The fierce battle for our nation’s schoolchildren is entering a new stage of conflict, and the National School Board Association (NSBA) is reforming itself to take up the fight. Diane Ravitich, a nationally renowned author and keynote speaker at the NSBA’s recent conference in San Diego, delivered a blistering attack against federal education policies and “entrepreneurs” that hurt public education.
“These people who call themselves reformers, who say our public education system is obsolete, that it’s failing, that it’s broken—they’re wrong,” Ravitch told the 9,000 school board and superintendent delegates from across America. “Our school system of public education is not broken.”
“It’s your (elected boardmembers’) responsibility to provide oversight and not hand off (schools and taxpayer dollars) to entrepreneurs,” she added. Ravitch even asked one of my Board of Education colleagues, TrusteeAnna Song, to stand up and take a bow in front of the plenary session for winning reelection to the county Board last November, after being