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Glenn Kessler Fact-Checks Trump on Tariffs | Diane Ravitch's blog
Glenn Kessler is the fact-checker for The Washington Post. He is careful and meticulous in his research. In this post, he analyzes Trump's statements about tariffs. He writes: Trump’s speech announcing a huge increase in tariffs on American trading partners was riddled with falsehoods and misleading statements on trade that he has made for years.…
Trump’s Tariffs: A Global Mess? | Diane Ravitch's blog
Yesterday after the stock market closed, Trump held a press conference to announce his much-ballyhooed tariff plan. He used the opportunity to insult other nations, as is his custom. Commentators noted that he slapped tariffs on uninhabited islands. Trump believes that the greatest period in the American economy ended in 1913, when the federal government…
Trump Administration Threatens to Cancel Funding to Public Schools with DEI | Diane Ravitch's blog
Michael C. Bender reports in The New York Times that the Trump administration is threatening to cancel funding from schools that refuse to eliminate programs or courses that teach DEI. The administration has turned civil rights enforcement upside down and inside out. For decades, civil rights law meant protection of racial minorities and women, who…
Scott Maxwell: Florida Replaces Immigrant Labor with Child Labor | Diane Ravitch's blog
It was entirely predictable that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would create a labor shortage by driving immigrants away. Whether documented or not, immigrants are the backbone of the tourist industry and agriculture, two of the basic elements in the state's economy. Once they were gone, who would replace them? Children. DeSantis is now promoting a…
Chicago: Teachers Union Wins Landmark Agreement with School Board | Diane Ravitch's blog
After nearly a year of bargaining, the Chicago Teachers Union reached a landmark agreement with the City of Chicago and the school board. Karen Lewis, the late President of the Chicago Teachers, was a champion for the city's children, their teachers, and the public schools. She must be smiling in heaven to see what the…
Michael R. Bloomberg: Kids Are Spending Too Much Time on Laptops | Diane Ravitch's blog
Michael R. Bloomberg is a billionaire who made his fortune in technology. He produced a computer with a double screen that is called "the Bloomberg," with each screen focused on different topics. I don't know enough about technology to explain why this machine was a big success but it was. Bloomberg is now the most…
DOGE Aims to Privatize Federal Government Functions | Diane Ravitch's blog
Those of us who have watched the movement to privatize public education over the past 30 years have witnessed a long list of broken promises. Privately-run schools, we were told, would be more effective, more accountable, more transparent, more responsive to students and parents, and would save money! Now we know that none of those…
Trump Wants to Control How Americans Vote | Diane Ravitch's blog
Dan Balz of The Washington Post writes about Trump's executive order seeking control of elections. Trump has complained about election fraud since he won in 2016; he couldn't believe that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, so he insisted that millions of undocumented immigrants had illegally voted. Although he set up a commission to find…
Trump Demands Nebraska Change Name of State Capitol! | Diane Ravitch's blog
Robert Kuttner, editor of The American Prospect, reported this shocking story: President Trump stunned Nebraskans today with his demand that the state change the name of its capital, Lincoln, or lose federal funding. “Lincoln was the original DEI president,” Trump said on his site Truth Social. “Not only did he give racial preferences to former…
Dana Milbank: Trump & Musk vs. The U.S. Constitution | Diane Ravitch's blog
In this essay in The Washington Post, columnist Dana Milbank offers to give Elon Musk private lessons about the Constitution. At no extra fee, he will let Donald Trump join the class. Both men are woefully ignorant of the foundational principles of American law. Musk was raised in South Africa, when apartheid was in force,…
DOGE Creates Chaos and Fear at HHS | Diane Ravitch's blog
Government Executive reports that the Secretary Of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to lay off 10,000 of the Department's 80,000 employeees. Entire divisions will be eliminated or merged. But no one knows who will be laid off. Decisions about layoffs are being made by Elon Musk's DOGE. Since no one knows…
The Greatest Hoax in Sports History? | Diane Ravitch's blog
Since today is April Fools Day, I had to dig to find something humorous. It wouldn't be about education, because there's nothing funny about a billionaire wrestling entrepreneur leading the charge to close the U.S. Department of Education. It wouldn't be about politics, because there's nothing funny about a befuddled, doddering old man pretending to…
An Update on Downsizing of Federal Workforce | Diane Ravitch's blog
Government Executive has gathered data on the number of layoffs, RIFs, and firings in various federal agencies. These cuts of employees are supposed to make government more efficient, but they are so haphazard that government is likely to be less efficient. The data are current as of March 28. The cuts are expected to help…
Catherine Rampell: DOGE Is Making Government “Comically Inefficient” | Diane Ravitch's blog
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/21/doge-government-efficiency-federal-workers/ A senior aide to President Donald Trump once said the administration hoped to traumatize civil servants, an objective it has handily accomplished through arbitrary layoffs and other indignities. But government workers are not the only victims. Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter Taxpayer dollars are being abused, too, as…
Texas: Beware of Vouchers! | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Texas House of Representatives is moving to a vote on vouchers. Governor Greg Abbott has been pushing vouchers for years, but the House legislators have defeated them again and again, even though Republicans have a super-majority in both houses. The votes were provided by a combination of urban Democrats and rural Republicans. The rural…
Peter Greene: Arkansas Legislators Go Berserk Over Trans Students | Diane Ravitch's blog
Peter Greene, now retired after 39 years as a teacher in Pennsylvania, is a prolific writer. He has his own blog Curmudgacation, and he writes a column for Forbes. I am one of his most fervent admirers. He is a font of wisdom and common sense. In this post, he examines the cruelty of certain…
Are Trees “WOKE”? Are They Infected with DEI? | Diane Ravitch's blog
Doktor Zoom at the Wonkette blog alerts us to the elimination of a federal program to plant trees. If you have worried that "from little acorns, DEI will grow," you will be pleased. If you fear that planting trees is the first step towards a "Green New Deal," you can relax. Words like "justice" and…
CDC Downplays Importance of Vaccines, Reflecting Malign Influence of RFK Jr. | Diane Ravitch's blog
ProPublica reported that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently watered down its advice about how to respond to the danger of measles. Pre-Trump and RFK Jr., the CDC was quick to warn the public about the importance of getting vaccinated, especially when there was an uptick in contagious diseases. Now, with vaccine critic RFK…
John Thompson: Why is Robert Pondiscio So Angry? | Diane Ravitch's blog
John Thompson is a historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma. He keeps watch over the Red state politics of Oklahoma and follows the national education scene closely, He writes here about author Robert Pondiscio. I was at one time good friends with Pondiscio. We were on the same wave-length. But things changed. Curiously, as I…
Der Spiegel: Personal Data of Top U.S. Officials is on the Web | Diane Ravitch's blog
Thanks to reader Kathy Griffith for this startling comment, citing the German publication Der Spiegel: Germany’s DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials,” the news site reported Wednesday. The top officials include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence…
Top Vaccine Official Resigns to Protest RFK Jr.’s “Lies and Misinformation” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Dr. Peter Marks, the leading vaccine expert at the Department of Health and Human Services resigned to protest Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s persistent lies about the efficacy of vaccines. At his Senate hearings, Kennedy assured the committee that his days as a vaccine opponent were over. He lied. The New York Times reported: The…
New York: Judge Rules that NYC Should Not Pay Inflated Rent of Charter School | Diane Ravitch's blog
Back in the first flush of charter schools, when they promised miracles, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared that he was the champion of charter schools. They enrolled only about 5% of the state's students, but he was courting their Wall Street backers. He persuaded the state legislature to give charters whatever they wanted. One…
Audrey Watters: The Dangerous Politics of Ed-Tech | Diane Ravitch's blog
Audrey Watters is a veteran blogger who has written about Ed-tech for many years, including a book about the history of Ed-tech, Teaching Machines: A History of Personalized Learning. Ed-tech concerns all of us so you might consider following her blog. This entry describes an upcoming conference where ASU and Global Silicon Valley bring together…
Trump Announces Ban on Labor Unions in Federal Workforce | Diane Ravitch's blog
In his efforts to purge the civil service of thousands and thousands of employees, labor unions have sued to block Trump's mass firings. Now he's striking back by seeking to eliminate the unions of federal workers. The New York Times reported: President Trump instructed a broad swath of government agencies on Thursday to end collective…
Trump Assigns Task of Revising the Nation’s History to Vance | Diane Ravitch's blog
When Trump took control of the Smithsonian Institution and its multiple museums yesterday, his executive order pledged to purge the museums of unpatriotic exhibits (WOKE ideology and DEI), the targets of Trump's rage. Trump gave the job to Vance, who will presumably clean up the nation's history and make it as inspiring (to white males)…
Three Prominent Professors Leave Yale for Canada | Diane Ravitch's blog
Three noted scholars of history, philosophy, and fascism at Yale University announced that they are moving to a university in Canada. One, Jason Stanley, made clear that he was leaving because of his fear that the U.S. was dangerously close to becoming fascist under Trump. The Yale Daily News reported: Three prominent critics of President…
Trump Takes Control of the Smithsonian | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump can't keep his hands off anything. In his mad dash to be king, he has decided to reshape the Smithsonian Institution. Will he close exhibits he doesn't like? We know he's completely ignorant of history, so whatever he does will suit his prejudices. He has put JD Vance in charge. Will he withdraw references…
John Connelly: Trump Never Learned the Lesson of Chamberlain at Munich | Diane Ravitch's blog
President Trump and Vice President Vance berate President Zelensky at the White House, February 28, 2025 (OSV News photo/Brian Snyder, Reuters) John Connelly is a historian of East Central Europe at the University of California at Berkeley. This essay appeared in Conmonweal. I urge you to subscribe. How I wish someone would read this essay…
ICE Grabs Turkish Ph.D Student at Tufts and Detains Her in Louisiana | Diane Ravitch's blog
ICE has become the American Gestapo. They are snatching foreign students on American campuses and whisking them away, often to undisclosed locations, with no hearings, no due process. The latest snatch-and-grab occurred yesterday at Tufts University in Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reported: The Trump administration’s campaign against pro-Palestinian activists reached the Boston area Tuesday evening…
Peter Greene: Why the Department of Education Matters | Diane Ravitch's blog
Peter Greene, veteran teacher, master writer, the voice of wisdom and experience, sets the record straight about the purpose of the U.S. Department of Education. Contrary to what wrestling-entrepreneur Linda McMahon (Trump's Secretary of Education) says, the Department was not created to raise test scores. The Department was created to promote equal access to educational…
Stephen Dyer: Vouchers in Ohio Subsidize 91% of Students in Private Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
Stephen Dyer is a former state legislator in Ohio. He is a practicing lawyer, an accomplished journalist, and a close observer of state education policy. He wrote on his blog 10th Period: According to state data from this year, a whopping 91% of parents with enrolled private school students are getting publicly subsidized tuition. Ninety.…
Trump Administration Cuts Funding for Vaccines for World’s Poorest Nations | Diane Ravitch's blog
The cruelty and sheer meanness of the Trump administration can never be overestimated. As the administration closes down USAID, without Congressional authorization, it announced a series of cuts that will kill millions of people. Having an ardent opponent of vaccines in charge of Heakth and Human Services removes any advocacy to distribute proven methods to…
Washington Post: DOGE Cuts Plunge Social Security into Chaos | Diane Ravitch's blog
Elon Musk's team of vandals, known as DOGE, have raided government agencies in search of deep cuts that they can take credit for. Most of their claims of savings turn out to be false or inflated but they persist in canceling contracts and firing government employees. The effects are now being felt at the Social…
Thomas Ultican: There Was No “Mississippi Miracle” | Diane Ravitch's blog
A few years bacon, the story of the "Mississippi Miracle" in reading was all the rage. The increase in scores of fourth grade students on NAEP scores was hailed as miraculous, a testament to the dramatic power of the "science of reading." New York Times' columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a column praising Mississippi for raising…
Thom Hartmann: In Trump’s America, ICE Can Detain Anyone–Even You–Without Cause or a Hearing | Diane Ravitch's blog
As I read this frightening post by Thom Hartmann, I was reminded of the many times in first term that he longed for protestors or suspects to be roughed up. He spoke to police officers in New York and urged them not to be so gentle when they apprehended suspects. He encouraged his audience to…
The SignalGate Scandal, the Lies, and the Text Messages | Diane Ravitch's blog
In the first big scandal of the Trump administration, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was invited to participate in a top-secret texting session about bombing the Houthis. Jeffrey Goldberg first thought it was a joke or a scam, but he joined the group and discovered it was real. He wrote about it in The Atlantic…
Rep. Rosa DeLauro: Trump and Musk Want to Fire Nearly 300,000 Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut is a stalwart ally of public schools. When Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, she was chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and she will be again when Democrats regain control of the House. She knows the federal budget. Check her attachment to see how many teachers will be…
Heather Cox Richardson Sums Up the Trump Clown Car Fiasco | Diane Ravitch's blog
Always count on Heather Cox Richardson to synthesize the latest news and put it into context. That's her skill as a historian. In this post, she recounts the absurdities of the top-secret meeting of the top officials in the Trump administration, which included a journalist. How did any of these clowns get a security clearance?…
How Many Will Die Because Trump and Musk Ended Foreign Aid? | Diane Ravitch's blog
Nicholas Kristoff tried to estimate how many people will die because of Elon Musk's frivolous cutting of foreign aid to desperate people? Of course, Musk relied on the authority given to his phony DOGE by Trump. So together, they bear responsibility for the deadly consequences. If either has a conscience, which is questionable, they will…
Hillary Clinton “Baffled” by Top-Secret Leak of War Plans | Diane Ravitch's blog
Remember how Trump ridiculed Hillary Clinton for using a private email server to conduct State Department business? His crowds chanted "Lock her up!" at his rallies. The FBI reopened an investigation 10 days before the election, based on allegations about her emails, closed the investigation a few days later, and she lost the election. No…