Excellent interview with Prof. Ravitch on Craggy's show today. With her current book and her tour she is emphasizing that the major problem with urban education is not as much the inadequacies of the schools as it is the issues the students bring with them to the classroom. These issues are daunting. Some are the result of factors mostly beyond the control of the affected communities, some are not. Prof. Ravitch does not address the latter.

Detroit is somewhat unique even among struggling districts, not only for how low achievement has fallen but also for the degree of market penetration of charter schools [[by some measures only about half of Detroit school age children attend DPS). I wish she and Craggy could have more specifically discussed her views about solutions in the Detroit context.

The most interesting part of the interview came when she was discussing mayoral control of urban schools. She is not a fan and relies on the absence of achievement gains in mayor-controlled districts for support. But, she does support a middle ground solution regarding governance. She proposes the elimination of elected school boards in public education that would be replaced with governor/mayoral/city council appointees who meet certain qualifications and who could not be fired before their term expired absent cause. An intriguing idea but probably a non-starter for the "community" leaders who equate an inability to vote for a school board member with a return to slavery. Far better to "respect" an un-informed vote for hustlin' wannabe politicians than to place the schools in the hands of vetted education professionals and other proven business and community leaders. It's all about the respect after all.