Writing for The Progressive, Eleanor Bader talks to education historian Diane Ravitch on the occasion of her new memoir.
By all measures, historian of education Diane Ravitch’s five-decade career as a writer, speaker, and advocate for public schooling has been jagged. A once-prominent conservative who supported charter schools, rigorous standardized testing, and tax-funded vouchers, Ravitch served in the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton before realizing that the agenda she had championed was doing a disservice to America’s children—and their teachers.
Her latest book, An Education: How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else, is part memoir and part political analysis of what is needed to ensure that every child receives the instruction and support they need to thrive. Ravitch spoke to The Progressive in late August, shortly before the book’s publication. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: I’m impressed by your public admission that you were wrong about educational policy and have taken responsibility for your errors. Did doubt slowly accumulate, or was there an “aha” moment?
Diane Ravitch: It was a day-by-day thing. For several years, I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Foundation, a conservative education policy think tank. The foundation sponsored twelve charter schools, and, over time, they all closed for reasons that included corruption by school administrators. It was the early 2000s, and the philosophy at the foundation was that these problems meant we needed to hire new leadership at the impacted schools. This was disillusioning, but it still took me a while to make a complete split.
Part of me was holding on to stories that frequently appeared in the mainstream media, which presented charters as an educational miracle. It was exciting to read about their achievements, at least until later stories reported that the schools had to close for one reason or another. I later learned that many charter schools raise their profiles by rejecting children with disabilities or behavioral issues or who come from unhoused families or families living in poverty. By the time I saw the pro-charter film Waiting for “Superman” in 2010, I was already pretty critical, so I guess it was the accumulated impact of articles and films that positioned charters as saving public education, because I knew that they didn’t do this.
Q: The Big Beautiful Bill signed by President Trump on July 4 will allow universal voucher programs in every state. Why is this likely to have a damaging impact on public education?
Ravitch: Universal vouchers subsidize tuition for children who were never planning to attend public schools and whose families can afford to pay their fees. I call it welfare for the rich.
Right now, the most hopeful thing I can say is that most children and families continue to go to public schools in their communities. But vouchers are dangerous because private schools are overwhelmingly unregulated, and there is typically no oversight of them. In most states, voucher schools are not accountable to anyone. Florida is the worst. In the 2023-2024 school year, voucher programs received $3.2 billion in state funding; last year, they received $3.9 billion. This is money that should have gone to public education.