Here's RiShawn Biddle's take (gotta love the graphic!):

Your editor wishes he could muster some passion for the latest conversation in the Beltway: Whether or not Diane Ravitch gets $200,000 a year in speaking fees from the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and other education traditionalists, as Steve Brill alleges in his newest text. For one, taking money from organizations with which one shares similar views isn't in itself shilling; otherwise this would be true for lot of folks on the lecture circuit. In any case, like-minded organizations and people always dovetail. Nor is Ravitch's lack of disclosure about the matter anything horrible. She's a private citizen, not an organization required to disclose income, spending and surplus. Besides, the less from Ravitch's pen, the better.

As for the claim by This Week in Education's Alexander Russo that this alleged "smear" of oh, poor Diane could blow up in the faces of school reformers? Only if the average person in Philadelphia, Miss., bothers to pay attention. Besides, no one needs to say much to discredit Ravitch's arguments; she does that to herself with every tweet.  The real battle over the reform of American public education will not be depend on whether Beltway players and the outlets that cover and opine about them (including this publication) argue about the equivalent of how many angels dance on the heads of pins.

Ultimately, this is a waste of time. And I'm almost ashamed I'm even commenting on it. Each hour, 150 kids drop out of school and into poverty and prison. Solving this crisis is more important than whether poor Diane took $10,000 for 15 minutes of demolishing straw men, spouting revisionist history and tossing out inaccuracies.

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Diane Ravitch is The Man

August 12, 2011 No Comments by RiShawn Biddle

http://dropoutnation.net/2011/08/12/diane-ravitch-is-the-man/