Ravitch: Well, I think that Rahm Emanuel is one of the worst mayors in the country. So I was very happy to see Bernie Sanders saying, "I don't want your endorsement." Because first of all, he closed 50 public schools in one day. And I think he, at some point, is going to be in the record books for having closed more public schools than anyone else in America. He's opening new charter schools at the same time that he's closing public schools. So I was very happy to see Bernie Sanders say, "I'll have nothing to do with you."
DB: That struggle there is one to watch in terms of the stand that the teachers took on behalf of their students and the system. There were a number of courageous teachers there and there are really extraordinary people, teachers, young teachers, administrators, and parents who are trying to, at all levels, stand up for public education and an education that really means something to their children. Again, it really speaks volumes the way this country ... how the education system and its sort of abuse, if you will, of children.
Ravitch: Right. Well, I have great respect for the Chicago Teachers Union. I think that they've really been a model for the country, in terms of saying -- the teachers are trying to do what's best for the kids. And the Chicago schools have had layoffs of thousands of teachers. Many, many schools including the 50 that Rahm Emanuel closed at one fell swoop were closed. And every time a school is closed, a community is shattered. I was today writing a post for my blog which will be up tomorrow morning, I think like 10 o'clock in the morning, that the model right now for education is Walmart.
Walmart comes into a community, wipes out all the local stores, and then if they decide that they don't have enough business they close, they leave, and the community is devastated. There's no more Main Street, all the people ... there's no more shoe store, toy store, drug store. All of that got absorbed by Walmart. And the Walmart family collectively, the Walton family, is worth over $150 billion. And they have a hard time even paying minimum wage to their workers. But that seems to be the business model that's infiltrating education, at this point, through the charter movement.
The real goal of the charter movement is to destroy the teachers' union. Because something like 90% of the charters are non-union. This is why the Walton family, and the Walton family through its foundation, puts up $200 million a year to expand charter schools, because they are the most effective way of busting unions. They rely on a group like "Teach for America" to supply new college graduates who are not union members, and who will be gone after 2 or 3 years. But that's very, very destabilizing for a community. Because in most parts of this country the schools are staffed by people who have made a career of teaching, not young kids come in to burnish their resume.
DB: Thank you, Secretary Ravitch, for joining us.
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