Diane Ravitch

Education historian/activist Diane Ravitch is taking the New York Post, claiming the paper doesn't appreciate parents criticism of public schools. Which sort of mirrors parent's complaints about Joel Klein.

In an item she posted at 6 a.m., Ravitch wrote:

Did the editorial writers of the New York Post read the latest Qunnipiac poll? Do they know that 58% of the voters in New York City want an end to mayoral control and a return to an independent Board of Education?

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Since the New York Post did not bother to report the poll to their readers, perhaps they don't know about it. And that's why their editorial writers think that anyone who questions the latest reorganization of the reorganization is a shill from New Jersey, not a real public school parent.

-- Azi Paybarah

Mike has never been much of an ideas guy. Lots of practicality, effective belt-tightening, technological wizardry, but very little ideology from the top, though some of his deputies certainly have strong ideas.

In the Wall Street Journal today, Diane Ravitch, the educational historian and official in the first Bush administration, writes that she wishes he had thought about the whole thing a little more. (Ravitch is usually cast as a conservative, though she's turned up as an unlikely ally for Randi Weingarten in some of the fights over just how much control the Mayor should have.)  read more »

In the clearest critique to emerge from the many quibbles with the mayor's attempt to turn around the schools, she argues that Mike blundered into what she considers trendy educational gimmickry out of ignorance.

"Neither Mr. Bloomberg nor Mr. Klein knew about the war of ideas that had been raging among educators for many years," she writes. "Business leaders who want to reform schools should educate themselves about the issues or risk being co-opted by the education establishment. Who would have believed that smart, pragmatic Mike Bloomberg would become a champion of constructivist pedagogy?"