Diane Ravitch Went to Cuba, Failed to Get Perspective About School Choice
Diane Ravitch is a former school choicer turned union booster and flak. (You can read some past posts about her here.) Earlier this month she vacationed in Cuba and offered her thoughts about the trip on her blog. She found the trapped-in-amber quality of the island charming though she was mildly annoyed at inconveniences like the lack of cell and Internet service. But she was optimistic about the prospects for change:
And yet it seemed to me that Cuba is on the verge of a major transition. It won't happen overnight but it will happen, it is happening already. A new generation is coming of age. They want opportunity. They want a better life. Little pockets of entrepreneurialism are opening up. Officially, the government owns everything, but there are many inconsistencies. Private restaurants called paladares offer excellent food (and pay heavy taxes). Because of a shortage of hotel space in some cities, many private homes rent rooms to guests. The old world is passing, dissolving, and a new world is beginning, shoots of grass breaking through the concrete.
Let's try that again, with just a couple of words tweaked:
And yet it seemed to me that Cuba American education is on the verge of a major transition. It won't happen overnight but it will happen, it is happening already. A new generation is coming of age. They want opportunity. They want a better life. Little pockets of entrepreneurialism are opening up. Officially, the government owns everything, but there are many inconsistencies. Private restaurants called paladares schools offer excellent food education (and pay heavy taxes). Because of a shortage of hotel space decent public schools in some cities, many private homes rent rooms to guests schools offer refuge to parents and students, but only those who can pay. The old world is passing, dissolving, and a new world is beginning, shoots of grass breaking through the concrete.
Ravitch says she would like to see the "antique" embargo on commerce with the United States lifted. Amen to that. But the American education system is nearly as locked down as the Cuban economy right now—why not apply some of the same insights to the ways that commerce could bring the opportunity and chances for a better life here at home?