- And if we were together in Houston,
it would've had an even bigger impact
because our dear friend, and professor,
and historian of education, Diane Ravitch,
grew up in Houston.
And we talked very soon
after we had decided
to be in Houston about whether
or not Diane would speak
to us from Houston.
I know we just had Lin
talk about, Lin-Manuel talk
about his family's roots in Puerto Rico.
Diane, from Houston.
And she joins us at this panel discussion
after she has written more
books than I can count,
after she has really
helped change the frame
of what has happened in
terms of public education.
Historians give perspective and context.
They also often are a mirror.
And so given everything
that Diane has done
for more than 40 years, been a
champion of public education,
a stalwart fighter against
privatization of public schools,
a steadfast advocate of the
professionalism of educators,
it felt appropriate
that when more than 75%
of K-12 teachers are women,
that Diane Ravitch, who is
and has been on the front
line of all of these issues
for more time than we know...
She was on the front
line at the picket line
in the rain in Los Angeles.
She has spoken with her
blog, and her Twitter feed,
and in the creation of the
NPE about all of these issues.
She did an op-ed with me.
I'll never forget how when
Michael Bloomberg did,
started basically running roughshod
over the then Board of Education
in the New York City school
system, she and I talked,
I think, late that night
after that hearing,
and we decided to do an op-ed together
that "The New York Times" accepted.
She speaks truth to power.
She does not sugarcoat the fact
that women are still
underpaid, undervalued,
and underrepresented,
even though they do some
of the most important work in the country.
She currently correctly points
out the crisis we're facing
in public education is
not because of a crisis
of academic achievement,
but rather a concerted effort
to destroy our public schools
and undermine the teaching profession.
And you don't have any
better examples of that
than Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos
and what they have tried
to do in the last few weeks
on the whole issue of reopening schools.
So for all these reasons
and for so many more,
it felt that we should
really not just have Diane
at yet another conference where
she was sharing her teaching
with us, but that we would
present to Diane Ravitch,
our dear friend, a personal
good friend for years,
and years, and years, but
our collective good friend,
the AFT Women's Rights Award to her,
not just for her friendship,
not just for her advocacy,
but for her heart, and for her soul,
and for putting it all out
on the table all the time
for decades upon decades upon decades.
I don't know a more fitting person, Di
to give this award to than
you, Dr. Diane Ravitch.
- Randi, thank you so much.
It's an honor to receive your award.
I wanna thank the members of the AFT.
I've been a friend of the AFT
since really the mid 1980s,
and I was a friend of Al
Shanker's and Sandy Feldman's,
and I'm honored to call you my friend.
And I remember saying to
you about a dozen years ago
at a family occasion that the survival
of public education now rested
on the shoulders of the AFT
and on you personally.
We have seen the most sustained assault
against public schools ever in our history
over the past four years,
and really, since the
Reagan administration.
And I'm gonna be writing
soon about the fact
that school choice came
from the segregation
of the 1950s, the 1960s.
The American idea, which had
strong bipartisan support,
was Republicans and Democrats agreed
on the importance of a
strong, universal, free,
and open public school system
staffed by professional,
well-prepared teachers.
I'm so honored to be part of
this event, and I thank you,
and I thank all of your members.
I thank you for the dedication
that you show every day
that you protect our children,
and that you will continue to show
through these very, very difficult times.
Thank you.
- Well, we get a lot of...
And for everybody who's watching us,
Diane and I are also personal friends.
We've known each other for a long time.
We do every now and then
fight like family does fight.
But I want people to know, Diane, that
what we see and need,
what we see in you is that over the course
of particularly the last
I would say 20 years,
because your work is based
in data, and in research,
and in fact, and in seeing
what has happened both here
and internationally,
you have a clairvoyance
and you have a perspective
that others do not have.
And it's really important to see that.
Today, I just got a couple
of your blogs this morning
in terms of the analysis about
what Trump is really doing.
And I'm so glad that
you are actually doing
that kind of writing.
I remember I mentioned
some of that history
in a TEACH speech a few years ago,
and just the right wing
wants to deny the history
that they've actually used to
try to segregate, segregate.
Look at what Trump just did
today in terms of using words
to try to create real inequality.
But having you on our side
has been really, really, really nurturing.
It's not just the fierce
advocacy, but it's been nurturing,
and it's been actually stabilizing
for many of us in terms of this fight,
and I can't thank you enough.
