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Diane Ravitch's Blog - Education & Personal Development
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CNN: The World’s Coral Reefs Are Dying | Diane Ravitch's blog
We have a president who does not believe in climate change. Trump appointed Lee Zeldin to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency, which was created by President Richard Nixon. His mega-donors in the fossil fuel industry are very happy with his policies of climate change denial. But climate change is real. CNN reports: Coral reefs Warming…
Federal Judge Partially Blocks Trump DEI Ban | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Trump administration claims that it wants to reduce federal intervention into the nation's public and private institutions. But it intervenes forcefully in both public and private sectors to punish anyone with different views. It has threatened to withhold federal funding for research from universities unless the targeted universities allow the federal government to supervise…
Carol Burris: With Religious Charters, the Charter Lobby’s Chickens Have Come Home to Roost | Diane Ravitch's blog
Carol Burris is the executive director of the Network for Public Education. She was a high school teacher and principal in New York State, where she was honored by the state principal's association as principal of the year. She is a tireless advocate of public schools and an equally tireless opponent of privatization. She writes:…
Heather Cox Richardson: Trump’s “Peace Plan” for Ukraine Is Putin’s Plan | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump has long demonstrated his admiration for Putin. No one can say exactly why Trump admires Russia's ruthless dictator. But Trump insists that Ukraine is responsible for Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His lame efforts to broker an end to Russia's war on Ukraine have robustly echoed Putin's demands. Heather Cox Richardson analyzes how…
Thomas Friedman: “I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country’s Future” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Thomas Friedman is not an alarmist. He has been writing about foreign policy for The New York Times for many years. He has written about crisis after crisis. But now we are an unprecedented point in our history. An unhinged ignorant man is President. Probably he is being manipulated by others. And at times, he…
Bye Bye, Tennessee Non-Achievement School District | Diane Ravitch's blog
If your memory is good, you may recall Arne Duncan's Race to the Top, which had $5 billion of unrestricted funds with which to spur education reform. Duncan had a contest in which states competed for a piece of that big pie. To be eligible to compete, states had to pass a law authorizing charter…
Randi Weingarten: Trump’s War on Knowledge | Diane Ravitch's blog
Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers. She is my friend. Randi wrote: President Donald Trump has declared war on America’s colleges and universities, demanding they bow to his demands on what they can teach and whom they can admit or hire. Trump’s illegal and autocratic actions are tantamount to a war…
U.S. Navy Cancels Lecture by Author Who Planned to Complain About Book Bans | Diane Ravitch's blog
Under the misguided policies of Trump and Hegseth, censorship and book banning have been widespread, especially by the Defense Department. Hegseth is eager to please Trump and has stripped recognition from anyone of distinction who is female and/or non-white. Even a photograph of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, was…
More Than 100 Universities Sign Statement Rejecting Trump’s Interference in and Control of Their Campuses | Diane Ravitch's blog
More than 100 universities joined forces to oppose the Trump administration's efforts to control their curriculum, their hiring policies, and their admissions policies. The initial statement was released this morning and almost another 100 universities signed on. The Trump administration's threat to academic freedom by suspending federal funding and threatening the universities' tax-exempt status alarmed…
ProPublica: Trump’s War on Data Undermines Public Policy | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump's war on our federal government continues unabated. Among his least noticed targets is data collection. If we don't collect data, we don't know where to focus our efforts and where we are succeeding or failing. Trump is not smart enough to figure this out on his own. Someone put this malevolent plan in action…
Will Ron DeSantis Outrun This Scandal? | Diane Ravitch's blog
Jason Garcia is an investigative reporter in Florida who has had plenty to investigate during the regime of Ron DeSantis. His blog is called "Seeking Rents." This is a post you should not miss. The governor acts like a dictator, and the Republican-dominated legislature doesn't stop him. Remember the takeover of New College? It was…
Robert Shepherd: Trump’s Attack on Nature is a Disaster | Diane Ravitch's blog
Robert Shepherd is a polymath who frequently comments on this blog. He has worked in almost every aspect of education, on curriculum, assessments, textbooks, and as a classroom teacher. His breadth of knowledge is remarkable. Shepherd writes: First, a little about the nature of nature. There are about 800 known species of fig. Each particular…
DOGE Kids Are Slashing Government Agencies, While Holding Multiple Jobs | Diane Ravitch's blog
Imagine that you are a career civil servant , having worked at the same agency for 30 years. Then one day a 25-year-old youngster arrives with instructions to make rapid, sweeping change. He fires you and everyone else who knows how the agency works. This is called reform. Who are these people? It turns out…
Memo Leaked about Cuts to State Department, Slashing Africa Offices, Climate and Human Rights Agencies | Diane Ravitch's blog
The New York Times published a leaked plan to reorganize the Trump State Department; Rubio disowned it. Its goal is to align the State Department and foreign policy with Trump's "America First" agenda. It's a very scary vision of Fortress America, cut off from the rest of the world, with no concern for democracy, climate…
Politico: MAGA Loyalist Describes a Month of Chaos at the Pentagon | Diane Ravitch's blog
A Trump loyalist wrote an article in Politico blaming Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for chaos and dysfunction at the Defense Department. Before he was confirmed by the Senate, critics warned that the FOX News host had minimal administrative experience and was completely unqualified to lead one of the nation's largest bureaucracies. He had run two…
Evangelicals Have Office in the White House | Diane Ravitch's blog
It's long been clear that Trump has relied on evangelical Christians as a significant part of his political base. It's also long been clear that Trump himself is not religious. He seldom quotes the Bible, which he usually mangles, but he does sell a Trump Bible ($60). He is usually golfing every Sunday, seldom seen…
Trump Posts an Angry, Bitter Easter Message on “Truth Social” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Donald Trump showed his vicious, vengeful character in his Easter message, where his hatred was on full display. He posted it on his social media platform TRUTH SOCIAL. Does he know what Easter is about? Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard…
Easter: Reflecting on the Deaths Caused by DOGE Dismantling USAID | Diane Ravitch's blog
Today is a good day to reflect on hypocrisy. The Trump administration is deeply entwined with two groups: evangelical Christians and Elon Musk's DOGE team. The White House has frequent prayer meetings, issues proclamations written by evangelical leaders, and even has offices in the Weat Wing for Trump's spiritual advisors. Meanwhile, Trump empowered DOGE to…
Beautiful! Stairwell Singing of “Ave Maria” | Diane Ravitch's blog
Happy Easter! Please open and listen. You will be astonished by these four young men, singing in a stairwell. The group is called King's Return. For many readers, this is a holy day. Reflect. Rest. Think about how to take seriously Jesus's teachings about kindness, mercy, love, compassion. Feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, welcome…
Boston Globe: Harvard May Beat Trump by Using His Tactics | Diane Ravitch's blog
James Pindell of The Boston Globe predicts that Harvard University has a better hand than Trump in their epic confrontation. Harvard, like Trump, can employ the tactics of delay, delay, appeal, delay, appeal, which Trump used to avoid accountability for provoking an insurrection and trying to overturn the election that he lost. Despite plentiful evidence…
Trump Plans to Harass More NonProfits that Help Poor People: His Easter Message | Diane Ravitch's blog
Politico reports that Trump plans to go after the tax-exempt status of non-profit organizations he doesn't like or send in DOGE to destroy them. Should we refer to him as King Donald? He also intends to wipe out the career civil service, replacing civil servants with appointees who are committed to his agenda, not to…
Texas: The Sordid Story Behind the Passage of Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog
It was no secret that Governor Abbott was intent on passing voucher legislation by any means necessary. In 2024, he called four special sessions to demand a voucher law, offering a big increase in public school funding as a sweetener. A coalition of rural Republicans and Democrats voted them down again and again. Rural Republicans…
A Brilliant Decision by a Conservative Judge Rebukes Trump Administration | Diane Ravitch's blog
Every once in a while, a judicial decision is so beautifully written and so well crafted that it should be read in full, not summarized. Such a decision was rendered yesterday by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth District Court of Appeals in the case of Kilmer Abrega Garcia. Judge Wilkinson was appointed to…
Trump Chooses Lawyer as DC Federal Prosecutor Who is a Putin Puppet and J6 Defender | Diane Ravitch's blog
One of the most important jobs in the federal government is that of the DC federal prosecutor. He or she handles important cases related to national security, among other things. Trump has chosen Ed Martin, a MAGA lawyer who has defended the J6 insurrectionists and insisted that the 2020 election was rigged. Now, The Washington…
Department of Homeland Security Demands Harvard Turn Over International Student Disciplinary Records | Diane Ravitch's blog
CNN reports that Kristi Noem sent a stern letter to Harvard, demanding the disciplinary records of all international students or lose the right to enroll any international students. Trump is turning all his dogs loose on Harvard. He can't believe Harvard is standing up to his threats, and he is determined to crush the nation's…
IRS Considering Revoking Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status, New York Times Reports | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump hates Harvard. It refuses to follow his orders. Harvard's President Alan Garber flatly refused to let the Trump goons take control of the university. Trump wants to show Harvard who is in charge. He said Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status. This is an unprecedented show of force. The president is not allowed to…
Texas: Republican Legislators Endorse Vouchers | Diane Ravitch's blog
Governor Greg Abbott finally got the voucher legislation he wanted, after years of defeats. His goal was frustrated by a coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans. The latter were defending their hometown schools, which are staffed by friends and relatives and are the community's hub. In last year's elections, Abbott ran hard-right Republicans against the…
Harvard President Rejects Government Control; Trump Threatens to Strip Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status | Diane Ravitch's blog
Alan M. Garber, President of Harvard University, wrote a brilliant letter defending the independence of higher education--and Harvard in particular-- from government control. Of course, the racist, homophobic, xenophobic Trump administration threatened to cut off Harvard's federal research grants if they didn't do more to combat anti-Semitism, a phony issue. Trump demanded an apology from…
Texas: Religious Leaders Condemn Governor Abbott’s Decision to Hold Vote on Vouchers During Holy Week | Diane Ravitch's blog
Pastors for Texas Children has been working hard to defeat vouchers, which would not only eliminate separation of church and state but destroy the state's rural schools. Pastors for Texas Children said the following: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jay Pritchard, 214.558.6656, jay@upwardpa.com April 14, 2025 Faith Leaders Condemn Voucher Vote During Holy Week as an…
Denis Smith: What I Learned at the NPE Conference in Ohio | Diane Ravitch's blog
Denis Smith retired from his position at the Ohio Department of Education, where he oversaw charter schools (which are called "community schools" in Ohio). In this post, he describes what he saw at the Network for Public Education Conference in Columbus, Ohio, in early April. He wrote: When It’s About Hands Off! That Also Applies…
Anand Talks to a Therapist: How to Survive the Abuser-in-Chief | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Ink “sees” a therapist to explore the links between narcissism and authoritarianism — and get some advice for the next four years THE INK AND NASTARAN TAVAKOLI-FAR Anand Giridhadaras is a brilliant thinker and writer. He did all of us a service by seeing a therapist to get advice about how to survive the return of…
Thom Hartmann: The Day Democracy Died in the U.S.A. | Diane Ravitch's blog
Thom Hartmann explains the significance of what Trump did to our democracy yesterday. He killed it. He sneered at the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He snuffed out the rule of law, which is the foundation of democracy. Thom Hartmann writes: Yesterday was the day democracy in our nation officially died. We no…
Aaron Tang: The Supreme Court Threatens Public Schools Even More Than Trump | Diane Ravitch's blog
Aaron Tang, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, explains how the U.S. Supreme Court is more dangerous to the future of public schools than Trump's policies. He writes in Politico: The greatest threat to public education in America isn’t Donald Trump. Yes, he’s moving to dismantle the Department of Education, and yes, he’s…
Thomas L. Friedman: After Trump’s Tariff Fiasco, Will Any Other Nation Trust America? | Diane Ravitch's blog
Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs opinion writer for The New York Times. In this post, he excoriates Trump for his arrogance and stupidity in handling the tariffs issue, and especially for his arrogance and stupidity in dealing with China. First, he insisted that he would "hang tough" on his plan to impose draconian…
Trump Wants to Erase the History He Doesn’t Like, But Historians Are Pushing Back | Diane Ravitch's blog
Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post wrote about the efforts by the Trump administration to rewrite American history. Trump wants "patriotic history," in which evil things never happened and non-white people and women were seldom noticed. In other words, he wants to control historical memory, sanitize it, and restore history as it was taught when…
As Global Economy Imploded, Trump’s Cash Register Was Going Ka-Ching | Diane Ravitch's blog
Investigative reporters at the New York Times--Eric Lipton, Theodore Schleifer, and Zoltan-Youngs, with assistance from Maggie Haberman-- were watching the busy scene at Mar-a-Lago during the brief period when Trump announced draconian tariffs on other economies (but not Russia, North Korea, Belarus or Cuba), but before his decision to postpone the tariffs for 90 days.…
Harvard Will Not Bow to Trump’s Demands | Diane Ravitch's blog
Trump has been waging war against the nation's top universities, demanding that they accept his orders to stamp out DEI or lose their federal grants. Trump uses the phony claim that he is combatting anti-Semitism, but the reality is that he is silencing academic freedom and free speech. For the record, Trump has accepted the…
Reminder: Dr. Azar Nafisi Event at Wellesley College CANCELED! | Diane Ravitch's blog
Contrary to previous announcements, Dr. Azar Nafisi will NOT appear at Wellesley College on April 15. Non-tenure track teaching faculty are string, and Dr. Nafisi would not take the chance of appearing while faculty are striking. She would not cross a picket line. Her lecture--about her book Reading Dangerously--will be rescheduled.
Why Care about Public Schools? A Dialogue. | Diane Ravitch's blog
Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, and Johann Neem, a professor of history of education at Western Washington University, discussed the meaning and purpose of public schools in a forum organized by the History of Education Quarterly. Why care about public schools? Why resist the "school choice" movement for charters and…