‘Good Faith & the Schools’

To the Editors:

I read the exchange between Joel Klein and Jonathan Zimmerman concerning me [Letters, NYR, April 2]. I want to set the record straight. Klein claims, “Early on, Ravitch pushed me to hire her partner to run a training program.” When Joel Klein was hired as chancellor by Michael Bloomberg in 2002, my partner was executive director of the New York City Board of Education’s principal leadership program, hired by Chancellor Harold O. Levy. That fall, the program won $3 million in a federal competition as one of the nation’s best leadership training programs. Klein decided to disband her program and transfer its funding to a new, $75 million principal training program run by a businessman from Denver. I did not ask Klein to put her in charge of his Leadership Academy. She stayed on for a year as a vice-president of the Leadership Academy, then retired, having worked in the school system for more than thirty years.

I did not save my e-mails from thirteen years ago. However a third party did read them. Before Klein’s departure at the end of 2010, I was informed by the legal office of the Department of Education that The Wall Street Journal had requested the correspondence between him and me, perhaps having heard the allegations he made here and in his book. The reporter never wrote a story, I presume because there was none.

As Zimmerman noted, I explained my reasons for disagreeing with Klein’s policies and reorganizations in two books and many articles. My reasons were professional, not personal. At no time have I ever expressed personal animus toward Klein or Mayor Bloomberg. I personally like former Mayor Bloomberg and admire many of the changes he brought to the city.

Diane Ravitch
New York City