A Case for Public Education; Diane Ravitch Speaks @ Lehigh University

Education historian Diane Ravitch, a lightning rod in the national debate on school reform, presented her case for public education Tuesday night in a well-received lecture at the Zoellner Arts Center. Hosted by Lehigh’s College of Education, Ravitch engaged in an imaginary, yet spirited, debate with a school reformer who’d likely argue that the nation’s public schools are failing, test scores are declining and drastic measures are needed to save the nation from certain ruin. As she fiercely countered those contentions, Ravitch argued that public schools must be saved for a future generation of children. She called the protection of public education from attempts at privatization as “the civil rights issue of our time.”