The Truth: “The Brookings Institution, was a nonpartisan, hiring former high-level officials from both parties. Ravitch had been Assistant Secr'y of the Office of Education Research & Improvement for Bush's admin., producing valuable studies & reports for Brookings. In 1993, she was offered the Brown Chair in Education Policy but turned it down, and remained a senior fellow who edited the Brookings Papers on Education Policy. 2 years ago, after her book The Death &Life of the Great American School System: How Testing & Choice Are Undermining Education was published, -- the night after she spoke the TRUTH ABOUT eduction policy on PBS, Russ Whitehurst informed her that she was terminated. "Brookings should be sponsoring debates and panels about the very issues that I raise. It is now clear those debates and panels will never take place. That is sad, far sadder than my termination."