The most interesting feedback was from Ravitch, who posted this (clearly in response to my email):
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/04/16/elizabeth-warren-and-i
I have recently read that Senator Elizabeth Warren is a supporter of school vouchers. This made people who despise public schools, like certain hedge fund managers, tingle with joy. At last, a progressive who is as contemptuous of public education as they are! At last, someone who will support their efforts to dismantle our nation's precious democratic institution whose doors are open to all.
About a month ago, I visited Senator Warren in her office in Washington, and she said without reservation that this was untrue.
She told me that she was, like me, a graduate of public schools. Without public education, she said, she would not be where she is today.
I gave her a copy of "Reign of Error," which she promised to read.
Since I am writing this on an iPad from Louisville, I can't figure out how to add the photo of me and Warren, holding the book. But I will tweet it.
I hope to hear from her again. More on this when I do.
Hedge fund managers, don't be so sure of yourselves. You can't buy everyone.
It's absolutely classic Ravitch: filled with anger, attacks and misrepresentations. Specifically:
A) "people who despise public schools, like certain hedge fund managers". I find it so ironic when Ravitch calls for people to tone things down when she's writing utter crap like this. I have never written that Ravitch "despises children and tingles with joy when her union buddies successfully screw them by protecting teachers who are sexual predators", so let's be clear who's dragging the debate into the gutter. And I and my fellow hedge fund managers and ed reformers love public schools – that's why we're fighting so hard to improve them – and against actions the unions take that turn our schools into something out of the longshoreman's union handbook.
B) Re. "whose doors are open to all", see the article below about whose doors are REALLY open to all.
C) Before we turn to Ravitch's account of her meeting with Sen. Warren, keep in mind that one would be well advised to treat Ravitch's descriptions of any meetings she has with a healthy degree of skepticism, in light of her completely fabricated, defamatory story about her meeting with RI Ed Superintendent (and ed reform warrior) Deb Gist in 2011, in which she initially claimed that Gist "interrupted me whenever I spoke, and filibustered to use up the limited time…Gist continued to cut me off. In many years of meeting with public officials, I have never encountered such rudeness and incivility. I am waiting for an apology." Unfortunately for Ravitch, a documentary film crew had it all on tape – a tape that to this day, Ravitch refuses to allow them to release (Gist wants it released). See my coverage of this here, here, here, here and here.
D) So with that in mind, Ravitch writes that Sen. Warren "said without reservation that this was untrue". Hmmm, what does Ravitch mean by "this"? Did she ask Sen. Warren whether she supports hedge fund managers' "efforts to dismantle our nation's precious democratic institution whose doors are open to all"? If so, I would hope that Sen. Warren said no!
E) "She told me that she was, like me, a graduate of public schools. Without public education, she said, she would not be where she is today." I'm glad to hear it! I'm sure she's also in favor of the flag, motherhood and apple pie. But what does this have to do with Sen. Warren's support of parental choice?
F) "Hedge fund managers, don't be so sure of yourselves. You can't buy everyone." Ah yes, the "hedge-fund-managers-buy-every-politician" myth. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's not an opinion, but a provable FACT that we reformers, even if you count the big foundations, are outmanned and outspent – not by a little, but by A LOT – by the unions/Blob.
<< Home