Gates v. Ravitch

Lost in the smoke and mirrors of WikiLeaks and the Federal Reserve's admission of massive financial infusions to foreign banks and domestic corporations was a curious dialogue in the Washington Post between Bill Gates and Diane Ravitch (shown at right).

They are an interesting contrast. Gates has embraced the "cause" of "education reform," while Ravitch has sharply questioned the "reformers'" logic and tactics.

Ravitch's position has made her a target for the classist "reformers." Newsweek's Jonathan Alter had this observation regarding the scholar who was once the American right-wing's intellectual darling on education:

(Gates') biggest adversary now is Diane Ravitch, a jaundiced former Education Department official under George H.W. Bush, who changed sides in the debate and now attacks Gates-funded programs in books and articles. Ravitch, the Whittaker Chambers of school reform, gives intellectual heft to the National Education Association’s campaign to discredit even superb charter schools and trash intriguing reform ideas that may threaten its power.

The school debate has shown, among other things, that the classist crowd does not brook dissent. Opposing views are turned into opportunities for vilification, as Alter aptly demonstrated by characterizing Gates' intellectual nemesis as "jaundiced" and a "Whittaker Chambers." Liberals have smugly asserted this style of mudslinging was something only conducted by uncouth right-wingers from backwoods states. Well, take a good look at the left side of the polemical road. It's not very savory.

It's also not very bright. The education scare is just as phony as the 50s Red scare was, an irony lost on Alter. Shameless spectacles, including Mark Zuckerberg's publicity stunt involving Newark schools and NBC's propagandistic "Education Week," were considered contributions to education progress. The big business interests swarming over educational institutions are rarely mentioned. Rupert Murdoch's brazen commercial dance with the New York City school system was noted, and quickly forgotten, in the wake of WikiLeaks.

Diane Ravitch's articulate point of view might help us salvage something from this mess. Her intellectual distinction and her disposition to speak her mind enable her to rally the routed, to slow the rush to judgment, and to enable cooler heads to prevail. We need that voice of reason now.

The photograph on the left (no pun intended) shows Bill Gates sitting between Waiting for Superman director Davis Guggenheim and Michelle Rhee on a recent Oprah Winfrey program.