When they say it’s not about the money….

A while back I wrote about the sudden conversion of Diane Ravitch from sensible education reformer to flaky supporter of the teachers’ unions (here). It’s always fun to speculate about the vagaries of human behaviour, and I have done my share of wondering what on earth was going on. Now comes a plausible hypothesis from my new hero and mystery solver Steven Brill (pp 304-305).

“From February 2010 through March 2011, Ravitch would make fifteen speeches across the country, according to a schedule found on her own website, to local, state, or national units of the teachers’ unions, plus nine to other groups - such as associations of local school boards or principals and a think tank founded by the NEA - that were also squarely in the anti-reform camp. During that time, Ravitch was listed by the Leading Authorities speakers bureau, which books speaking appearances, as charging a fee of $15,000 to $20,000 per speech, plus travel expenses.

“Asked if she charged the unions whose cause was given such a lift in her book, Ravitch said, ‘Don’t you charge for your speeches?’ (Answer: Not if it’s a group whose issues I am covering, or might cover, in any way as a writer.) Assuming that Ravitch didn’t get the sticker price for her speeches, but instead received an average of just $10,000 (which is what the Florida Education Association told me she was apid), that would mean more than $200,000 in little more than a year coming from the teachers’ unions and others opposed to reform.

“Ravitch told me in April 2011 that she had ‘an even fuller’ schedule of speeches slated for the reminder of the year, although she declined to say how many would be paid for by the teachers’ unions. ‘I was married to a wealthy man,’ she said, referring to Richard Ravitch, a successful construction company executive, real-estate developer, and banker, who served as New York’s lieutenant governor from 2009 to the end of 2010, and from whom she is divorced. ‘I live very comfortably. This is not about the money. I’m seventy-two and don’t need money. If I want to speak to a group I’ll do it for free or for a few thousand dollars if that’s all they can pay.’ (In an e-mail following this conversation, Ravitch told me that she was donating her speaking fees to a pediatric oncology program, dedicated in May 2011, in memory of her son, who had died of leukemia at age two.)”

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