our guest diane ravitch here to talk bed case and he education reform. ladies and gentlemen, there are many consequence to its growing cascade of revelations about our nation's spying activities. most recently the bugging of german chancellor angela merkel's cell phone and lederhossen drawers. (laughter) and the fact that the united states pretended to be her onlean boy friend for two years. two years-- ! but perhaps i never realized how acute and dire the fallout of this may be until i saw this shocking story. >> russian leaders are denying reports of spying on overseas leaders. they are accused of passing out bugged gift bags at last month's g-20 summit. >> jon: bugged gift bags! before all these revelations we could have jumped all over this story with good old-fashioned american con desession and smug superiority, thrown out a little boris and natasha reference. done a little yaukoff smirnoff, in russia gift bag rummage through you, but now-- (laughter) i can only smear at how ham handed their spying is. >> delegates were given usb pem ree sticks and

diane ravitch. [applause] >> thank you so much, randi. i can't think of anyone that i would rather have introduced me -- [inaudible] spent not working? sorry. i wanted to thank randi because she came here specifically to introduce me. i am very grateful to her. i'm grateful to her for her friendship, for her leadership, for the courage that she showed him standing up for teachers. i'm very happy to be at a philadelphia free library, particularly because today is the day that my book is published and i can't tell you what that means to an author to be on publication day. as i was sitting in the room back there, which i guess is called a greenroom, i looked on amazon and i discovered that my book is number 105 on the first day applaud mac -- and i know from years of looking at amazon a lot of books ahead of it are cookbooks. [laughter] it's the number one ranked book in outlook policy on amazon.com. it just came out today. so i'm really excited and pumped. i'm also excited to be here in philadelphia. you are ground zero. pennsylvania is gro

joining me is diane ravitch. the author of "reign of error."y the debate is framed in terms of how do we make america's schools better. how do we reform them. what does reform constitute. everyone wants reform. you attack the very premise upon which the whole thing is built, is that our schools are bad, that they're failing, that we're laggards in the world. that is such conventional wisdom. persuade the viewers, persuade me that's not true. >> well, they'd have to read my book. that would be a good start. but i'm an historian of education. i've been writing about education since the mid-1970s. i've written lots of books. and what i did was to look at the data. and what the data shows is test scores for american students today, based on federal tests, have never been higher. they've never been higher for white students, black students, hispanic students or asian students. grad rauation rates are at thei highest point. i even looked at international test scores and found that we're actually doing quite as well. >> okay. there's a few things to d

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cheaply and early in the job for a couple of years with less chance for tenure and benefits even diane ravitch former u.s. assistant secretary of education has said chicago's school policy is not an education development plan it's an economic development plan c ravitch says the push for charter schools promote standardization a method that's completely destroying education. in the past the democratic party has fought the corporate takeover of public programs especially in the realm of education and under current meal liberalism the battle is being waged on behalf of the corporations so the democrats leading the charge. who will be left to fight for the future of american schools well i spoke to someone earlier who believes that the next phase of the corporate takeover of public education is automation out and bessie is an assistant professor in college and recently wrote an excellent article article for truthout about the commodification of students and schools i first asked him of robots taking over the role of teachers is a real possibility and here's his response. well. if you go to south k

diane ravitch. [applause] >> randy cater specifically to introduce me and i am very grateful to her for her french shipping and leadership them the courage that she shows to stand up for teachers. and i am very happy to be at the philadelphia free library because today is the day of my book published in what that means and to be on publication day as a was sitting back there i looked amazon it is number 105 on the first day. [applause] in i know from years at looking at amazon though once ahead of it are cookbooks. [laughter] it is the number-one book of public policy a and it just came out today so i am delighted also excited that you are ground zero. for the destruction of privatization of education. to write about schools without social workers or counselors or libraries bang you say why are the children learning? they're missing something. but to help fight back in an organization that will be a path and we will not raise much money but that is the good housekeeping seal of approval to those rac

diane ravitch. that is all for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts now. >> good evening. thanks for joining us this hour. this is, of course, the fourth day of the shutdown of the federal government. and apparently the fourth day is when the democratic party starts pulling rabbits out of hats to try to save the republican party. >> good afternoon. madam speaker, all of my colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, we are announcing something good today. we are about to rescue the republicans who have gotten themselves in the unhappy position of the dog that caught the car. >> 87-year-old congressman john dingell of michigan announcing the new democratic plan, really more like a new democratic trick to try to end the government shutdown, even if the republicans in congress do not want to. two of these democratic tricks were actually unveiled today. the first one they tried already, and it didn't work. but the second one they are announcing, and it's going to take a while, but i suppose it might work. here's how this goes. the guy on the right side of your screen here is a republica