Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to American Public Schools

Diane Ravitch Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to American Public Schools New York: Knopf, 2013Reviewed by Howard A. DoughtyOutside observers commenting on American domestic policy are at a tremendous disadvantage. Various domains of public policy, but especially the enormously important and expensive fields of health care and education, attract organizations and attitudes which it is difficult for outsiders to understand. The large role played by private sector institutions from Health Maintenance Organizations (which manage health care for millions) to giant publishing houses and associated information technology firms (which dominate the textbook industry and thereby public school curricula) are just two of the businesses that exert extraordinary control over areas that most advanced countries think are properly administered in the public domain.Even (or especially) the language is different. Fringe elements in American politics and in the print and broadcast media make patently outrageous claims about, for example, President Obama's political views. Some, for instance, claim that the president is a socialist, thus proving only that they have no idea what a socialist (democratic or revolutionary) is. What's more, bizarre claims including the questions of the president's birth place or religious affiliation are made with apparent impunity and with brazen disregard for the facts. Moreover, even the mainstream media feel compelled to take such matters seriously and to feature quasi-debates on them. After all, it makes for dramatic theatre, but it increasingly seems like theatre of the absurd.Now that the USA seems to have tired of Middle Eastern military adventures for the time being, the issues about which Americans argue seem mainly to be domestic and the issue of health insurance has preoccupied the electorate for at least the past year. Education, however, is never far from the spotlight and may soon come forward as being at least as important and as highly contested. Diane Ravitch has been at the centre of the controversy over schools for decades.Reign of Error is the best way to educate yourself about the takeover of our educational system by billionaires who, even if they are well-intentioned, do not understand what they are doing. - Paul Horton, History Teacher - Chicago.Ms. Ravitch is an educational historian who has spent a great part of her professional life in and around government. She was Assistant Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush, and appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board under President Clinton-a position she retained through the first administration of President George W. Bush.Originally a supporter of the President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program, Ravitch became increasingly disillusioned with the direction American was taking and took the path of apostasy. She has now become as one of the most competent, coherent and severe critics of what might best be described as neoliberal or, perhaps, corporate education.The main arguments brought against the existing public school system are pressed by an impressive range of celebrities, politicians and manufacturers and merchants of educational technology. They include, of course, the likes of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and other extreme right-wing Republicans whose anti-intellectualism is worn not only on their sleeves but on every other part of their wardrobes. They also include elite philanthropists and opinion leaders such Oprah Winfrey and, of course, Bill and Melinda Gates. As well, they do not exclude alleged progressives associated with President Obama, not least his former Chief of Staff and current Mayor of Chicago, Rohm Emanuel and, of course, his education czar, Arne Duncan who is a coveted speaker at government and professional meetings where technologically mediated is the innovation-du-jour. …

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