"Reign of Error: Responding to the Assault on Public Education" with Diane Ravitch - Oct 23 at 7:30 PM

Over 88% of students in the United States receive a public education. Many view the provision of a free education to be the hallmark of the U.S. democracy. Nonetheless, education in the U.S. and more specifically its privatization has become quite a hot-button issue. In Diane Ravitch’s public program on Wednesday, October 23, she will examine federal programs such as George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Barack Obama’s Race to the Top in relation to higher test scores, decreased graduation rates and the rise of private educational opportunities.

Diane Ravitch, a Historian of Education and research professor at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, will delve into these issues and help us understand the educational policy battle that rages on. Called a “whistle-blower extraordinaire” by the Wall Street Journal, Ravitch has uncovered deep-seeded policy issues and strategies and the problems that they are causing. Ravtich argues that we are not lacking in academic achievement, but rather it is the leaders’ and policy makers’ approach to education that is detrimental to the progress of education. Warning of the privatization of public education, her lecture, “Reign of Error: Responding to the Assault on Public Education” will outline both problems and solutions for the current educational system in America. Her goal is to educate rising leaders about the issue to inspire citizens to fix what is currently ‘broken’: the American Public Education System.