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Julian Vasquez Heilig: How to Respond to the Department of Education DEI Tipline! | Diane Ravitch's blog
Julian Vasquez Heilig is a scholar of diversity, equity and inclusion. His blog is called Cloaking Inequity. He was Provost at Western Michigan State University. He recently stepped down to further his scholarship and advocacy as a professor. Julian is a founding member of the board of the Network for Public Education. His advice for…
Senator Elissa Slotkin Responds to Trump Speech | Diane Ravitch's blog
The recently elected Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan responded to President Trump. She was terrific. It takes about five minutes to watch. I'm happy to say that I contributed to her campaign. She's smart, strong, and articulate.
Dana Milbank: Trump Proclaimed that He Is the Greatest President in History | Diane Ravitch's blog
I didn't watch Trump last night. The combination of his face, his voice, and his lies is intolerable. I get nausea and a headache. And my soul hurts. I have always loved this country. I am a patriot. And he is destroying it. CNN fact-checked the speech. So did The Washington Post. As expected, it…
Trolls Flood ED DEI Tip Line with Hilarious Spoofs | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Department of Education asked for tips about schools that continued to promote DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and trolls jammed the inbox. LGBT Nation had the story. The right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Moms for Liberty (M4L) decided to team up with the Trump Administration to create a website “snitch line” allowing people to report K-12 schools that…
If You See DEI, Report it to the U.S. Department of Education! | Diane Ravitch's blog
The U.S. Department of Education has followed civil rights law since the Department was created in 1979 and began operating in 1980. Its Office for Civil Rights investigates complaints of discrimination against students based on their race, gender, ethnic origin, or disability status. The Trump administration has flipped the meaning of discrimination and now invites…
Greg Olear: What Democrats Should Do Tonight | Diane Ravitch's blog
Greg Olear has a plan for Democrats tonight at the State of the Union. Here it is: Tonight, at 9 pm Eastern Time—which is to say, 5 am Wednesday Moscow Time—Co-President Trump will deliver the first State of the Union Address of the Redux. Congressional Democrats must protest this speech like the fate of the…
Dr. Paul Offit: RFK Jr. Is Still a Vaccine Denier | Diane Ravitch's blog
During his Senate confirmation hearings, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to downplay his decades-long reputation as an opponent of vaccines. He even persuaded a Republican physician, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, that he would be guided by science, not his ideology. Why Senators believe nominees who try to disown their past is a mystery. Dr.…
Zelensky Offers Ceasefire Plan, Praises Trump Effusively | Diane Ravitch's blog
Ukrainian President Zelensky offered a path to peace, trying to mend the rupture with the U.S. He rejected the previous deal presented by Trump because it was negotiated by the U.S. and Russia, without the participation of Ukraine, and it contained no security guarantees, no protection for Ukraine if Putin decided to renew the war.…
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on the “Final Mission” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Former entertainment entrepreneur Linda McMahon is now U.S. Secretary of Education. She released her first statement, reiterating Trump's attacks on "diversity, equity, and inclusion," as well as "gender ideology" (I.e. recognizing the existence of ONLY the male-female binary and not recognizing those who are LGBT, such as Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, who is…
DOGE Tackles the Social Security Administration | Diane Ravitch's blog
Elon Musk's hatchet kids have been at work at the Social Security Administration, firing people, terminating leases. Democrats are worried that service will deteriorate, which will encourage Republicans to call for privatization. As we well know, privatization means some huge corporation must make a profit, so workers will be paid less and services will deteriorate.…
My Article on the Plot to Sell Out Our Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
This article appeared in The New York Review of Books. As daily newspapers have shrunk or abandoned their book reviewing, the NYRB stands out as the nation's leading journal of literature, the arts, and politics. It takes books seriously. This is an essay-review about the history of vouchers. I reviewed Josh Cowen's outstanding book The…
Fact-Checking Trump Lies About the USAID “Consultant” Who Was Paid $520 Million | Diane Ravitch's blog
Glenn Kessler is a professional fact-checker at The Washington Post. I hope Jeff Bezos doesn't fire him because he does a great job documenting Trump's lies. This is a story in which Trump berates a program launched during his own first term! Trump started the program he now mocks as ridiculous! Kessler begins: “Here are…
Timothy Snyder: Trump Unleashes Chaos on the World by Defending Russia | Diane Ravitch's blog
Where Trump goes, chaos follows. That's a fact of life, as we see both in his upending of every federal agency and his disruption of foreign policy. Timothy Snyder, Professor of European History at Yale university, and one of the leading scholars of Eastern Europe, has been clear-eyed from the start about Putin's murderous designs…
Thom Hartmann: Why Does the Media Ignore Nazi Symbolism at Trump-Musk Events? | Diane Ravitch's blog
Thom Hartmann, independent journalist, finds it curious that the Republican Party so frequently displays Nazi symbolism. And why does the major media ignore usually overlook the fondness for Nazi iconography by Trump, Musk, and their allies? Is it their youth? Their historical ignorance? Their caution? He writes: Is it a shout-out to the hardcore racists…
ProPublica: A Handy Guide to Segregation Academies | Diane Ravitch's blog
ProPublica has created a database where anyone can check out where the segregation academies are. The database shows the demographics of public and private schools. Bear in mind that highly segregated private schools are subsidized by taxpayers in states that have enacted universal vouchers. The politicians today are fulfilling the fever dreams of segregationist governors…
SNL Parodies the White House Fiasco | Diane Ravitch's blog
Saturday Night Live opened its show last night with a hilarious parody of the cringeworthy meeting where Trump and Vance berated Zelensky for not being sufficiently deferential. The high point of the skit was the surprise appearance of Elon Musk, looking and acting deranged, along with his "Big Balls" helper.
Ed Department Backs Down on Some Extreme DEI Bans | Diane Ravitch's blog
On January 29, Trump signed two executive orders about schools: one was intended to turn federal funding into block grants to states to expand school choice, the other was intended to suspend federal funding to public schools unless they ended "radical indoctrination" about race and gender. The administration wanted to stop all teaching about racism…
How Elon Musk Took Control of the Federal Government | Diane Ravitch's blog
The New York Times reported on Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. Trump has given Musk the power to close down agencies authorized by Congress, like the USAID and the Consumer Financial Control Board. Not a peep from the Republican-dominated Congress, as the world's richest man flaunts his power to redesign the government and…
Erin Reed: “First They Came for the Trans People…” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Erin Reed is a transgender activist who tracks the attacks on people like her on her blog "Erin in the Morning." Erin has a lot of ground to cover, as Trump launches a firestorm of hate towards transgender people, joined by extremist state legislatures, occasionally slowed down by court rulings. Do trans people have any…
Dan Rather: Trump and Vance Disgraced Our Country | Diane Ravitch's blog
Veteran newsman Dan Rather described his reaction to the fiasco in the Oval Office, when Trump and Vance berated our ally, Volodymyr Zelensky, while praising Vladimir Putin. You must watch the video of the encounter, which is linked at the end. I cringed as I watched. Trump and Vance bullied Zelensky. They pounded him with…
Our Allies Speak Up in Support of Ukraine | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump's MAGA base was happy with his beatdown of Zelensky, and Russia too was thrilled. His Cabinet members each dutifully thanked him for offending Zelensky and "putting America First." ((I doubt they realized that the "America First" crowd in the 1930s was opposed to helping Europe fight Hitler.) With the exception of the Fascist leader…
The Trump-Putin New World Order | Diane Ravitch's blog
James Pintell of The Boston Globe wrote yesterday, after the fractious meeting in the Oval Office in which Vance and Trump insulted Zelensky, as the beginning of a "new world order." He wrote: The blow-up set the stage for an entirely new world order, should future presidents choose to accept its premise. Or they could,…
Climate Change is on the Chopping Block | Diane Ravitch's blog
At the blog called "Wonkette," a writer called "Doctor Zoom" described the Trump administration's determination to ignore climate science. Apparently, the "golden age" of our nation was the 1950s, before most people had given any thought to the environment and to the human role in fouling the air and the waters. Ignorance is bliss when…
PBS: Brooks and Capehart on the White House Debacle | Diane Ravitch's blog
David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart converse every Friday night on the PBS Newshour about the big story of the week. In these exchanges, Brooks is the conservative, Capehart is the liberal. Tonight's story, of course, was the Trump-Vance attack on Zelensky and the apparent preference of these two American leaders for Putin over our allies.…
ProPublica: Mike Johnson Shares Home with a Far-Right Pastor Who Has a Political Agenda | Diane Ravitch's blog
ProPublica reported that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson lives in the home of a far-right evangelical who lobbies for his extremist views. How is this different from being roommates with a lobbyist for Big Pharma or the Tobacco Industry? It's not, but it may be more dangerous because this pastor is one of those…
Trump Rages Against Zelensky in White House Meeting, Ends Talks with No Deal, Blames Zelensky | Diane Ravitch's blog
Today, Trump met at the White House with President Zelensky of Ukraine to try to hammer out a ceasefire and peace deal. Trump has demanded 50% of all of Ukraine's mineral wealth to pay for America's past support. The agreement was prepared for signing, but the meeting collapsed because Trump said Zelensky was "disrespectful." This…
Paul Cobaugh: Trump and Vance Are Traitors | Diane Ravitch's blog
Paul Cobaugh spent his career in the military, where he worked in intelligence. In his blog "Truth against Threats," he expressed his horror and shame about what Trump and Vance did today to betray our country. For another view, consider Senator Lindsey Graham's craven response; he called on Zelensky to resign, in a tweet. Loyalty…
Musk Takes a Chainsaw to the Federal Workforce and Creates Chaos | Diane Ravitch's blog
This article in Government Executive describes Elon Musk's savage attack on the federal workforce as the "triple cleaver" approach. It is actually the chainsaw approach, the very implement Elon waved around on stage at the Conservative Political Action Committee's annual meeting. As he fires people without regard to their contributions, their experience, their worth, he…
A New Partner in the Fight to Save Public Schools! | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Network for Public Education works with scores of state and local grassroots groups that want to protect and strengthen public schools. Almost 90% of out nation's children attend public schools. We are fighting libertarian billionaires and religious zealots who want to dumb down and indoctrinate our children. Above all, they want to cut their…
Jeff Bezos Tells Opinion Writers What to Write | Diane Ravitch's blog
It's dizzying to watch the changing views of Jeff Bezos since he bought the Washington Post. First, he pledged not to interfere in the editorial content of his prize bauble. Last fall, he yanked an editorial endorsing Kamala Harris. Now he has new instructions for editorialists and opinion writers: we support personal liberties and free…
Arkansas: A Brief, Powerful Demonstration of Critical Race Theory | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump and his acolytes have thrown around the term "critical race theory" without e we defining it. He picked it up from rightwing extremist Chris Rufo, who thought that it could be used as a blunderbuss to smear public schools. He convinced large numbers of anxious white parents that the public schools were teaching their…
Jeff Bryant: Linda McMahon’s Gaslighting of Democratic Senators Was “Elegant” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Jeff Bryant, veteran education journalist, covered Linda McMahon's Senate confirmation hearings for The Progressive. She is, of course, Trump's choice for Secretary of Education. Everyone was stumped by her ability to dodge every question. Bryant said she was "elegant" in her obfuscations. McMahon accepted the leadership of a department that Trump wants to abolish. She…
Florida: “Support Our Schools” Fights for Public Schools in Sarasota | Diane Ravitch's blog
In Sarasota, supporters of public schools are pushing back against Trump's plan to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Residents, students lobby school board amid Department of Education uncertainty By Heather Bushman, Sarasota Herald-Tribune The biggest story from this week's Sarasota County School Board meeting didn’t comefrom the agenda, or even from inside the board…
SCIENCE: Ex-Trump Official Warns that Canceled Contracts Will Harm Efforts to Improve Education | Diane Ravitch's blog
Science magazine interviewed former leaders of the Institute for Education Sciences, where DOGE canceled scores of contracts. One thought it was great, the others thought it was alarming. Science reports: The sudden cancellation Monday of hundreds of millions of dollars of government contracts to collect information on the state of U.S. education will blind the…
Julian Vasquez Heilig: Higher Education and “The White Flag of Cowardice” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Julian Vasquez Heilig is a scholar of equity. Until recently, he was provost at Western Michigan Hniversity. He stepped back to his role as a scholar, and he now speaks his mind freely and forcefully. He wrote on his blog "Cloaking Inequity" about the choice facing the leaders of higher education: either stand up for…
Trump Places MAGA Zealot as #2 at the FBI | Diane Ravitch's blog
The news every day is hard to stomach. It was bad enough that the Republicans appointed Kash Patel to lead the FBI, despite his documented history as a Trump flunkie, a conspiracy theorist, and a liar. Republicans who served in the first Trump term were aghast at his selection. Republican Senators choked but confirmed him.…
Paul Cobaugh: Patriots Don’t Support Coups! | Diane Ravitch's blog
Paul Cobaugh is a military veteran who spent many years in intelligence operations, decoding propaganda. This post is straight talk from a patriot and a vet. His blog is "Truth Against Threats." TAT readers, This is a quick update. For the next week or so, I have an erratic schedule that will keep me from…
Trump-Appointed Judge Okays Firing of USAID Workers, Gutting Foreign Aid | Diane Ravitch's blog
A judge appointed by Trump in 2019 ruled in support of Trump's decision to terminate most of the civil servants who work for USAID. The evisceration of USAID will hurt American farmers, who sell billions of dollars of grain and other food to USAID for distribution in poor countries. Meanwhile, the cessation of food and…
Robert Hubbell: The Tide Is Turning Against Trump and Musk | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump's poll ratings are dropping . The public doesn't like what they see. #ChainsawElon is not popular. His glee at firing people turns most people off, except Trump's faithful. Does Trump care about polls? We know he does. If his numbers continue to fall, some Republicans might find a spine. Elon's latest overreach caused a…
Trump and the Governor of Maine Clash Over Transgender Women in Sports | Diane Ravitch's blog
At a White House meeting with Trump, he picked a fight with Janet Mills, the governor of Maine. He asked if she was present, then berated her because Maine allows transgender women to compete in women's sports. Governor Mills stood up for Maine's laws and didn't back down. Trump threatened to cut off all federal…