In fact many Charter Schools can be models and are quite scalable. Many schools do just that with similar results.

But the book is far from despondent. There is much we can do, Ravitch argues, if we honor the substance of education and give our schools the support they need. She also attacks major financial education philanthropies, such as Bill Gates, and shows that simply throwing money at schools doesn’t work if it’s put in all the wrong places. As a teacher, I was fascinated by her research and perspective. An article she wrote more than 40 years ago, entitled “Foundations: Playing God in the Ghetto,” sounds like something from the front pages of today’s news. No other observer of the events surrounding our schools brings such a deep perspective to the events of today in our schools, always different but so much the same. And you do not have to figure out how they do it. They tell you.

Ravitch provides an alarming look at how these rich and powerful foundations sometimes use their clout to promote their own agendas and philosophies of education. Why is this allowed to happen?

If the Broads, Waltons and Gates really want to fix America’s schools, a good place to start would be by purchasing a copy of Dr Ravitch’s book for every Washington bureaucrat, senator, representative, state legislator, mayor, school superintendent, school board member, and principal. That could set the whole system moving in the right direction.

There is nothing easier to learn how to do than to vastly improve K-12 education and nothing harder to actually achieve. This book is replete with examples of the latter and contains some good advice for the latter.

This reviewer can’t help but wonder how Ms Ravitch’s journey matches his own. A decade ago I was a graduate student. I will not go into detail about her qualifications, balanced research, experience or the strength of character to change her mind about an education policy that she saw failing the children of the United States as many previous reviews have already accomplished this over the past few weeks. As a public educator, I wish the American public would open their eyes to what charter schools really are instead of the mistaken belief that are succeeding though they are not comparable to public schools. But charters must not be allowed to cream off the best students, or avoid taking the most troubled, as has been alleged here in New York City. Her main point, however, is broader. As such, it probably comes as no surprise that I disagree with much of what Dr Ravitch has written in her book, at least, to varying degrees. Ravitch uses a bevy of academic studies, articles, and research to support her arguments against many of the current trends in education reform including NCLB-driven testing, expansion of charter schools, and merit-based compensation systems. I visited two classrooms, in both the students were unruly and out of control. There was no student work on either the walls of the school or in the two classrooms I saw. Second, the extraordinary growth of charter schools has weakened the public education system. And nobody has shown that charter school results are superior to public education. John Dewey, one of the towering figures of American educational thought, is not found in the index. OK, she hasn’t quite written the book I would have liked her to write.

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