Democracy Now!: Fri., Mar. 5, 2010

At least 14 people have been killed and nearly 60 wounded in a string of attacks in Baghdad on the first day of voting in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. Nir Rosen, an independent journalist who has covered the Iraq war since 2003, discusses the elections. Students and teachers held hundreds of demonstrations on Thursday as part of the We get a roundup of the action on the streets during National Day of Action to Defend Public Education, from California to New York. Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, long an advocate of No Child Left Behind, charter schools, standardized testing, and using the free market to improve schools. But she’s had a radical change of heart, and now says, “The evidence says No Child Left Behind was a failure, and charter schools aren’t going to be any better.” Democracy Now! is a daily independent newshour.