Education historian Diane Ravitch was in Chicago today, and she weighed in on the new leader of the Chicago Public Schools—Barbara Byrd-Bennett.

Ravitch served on the board of the Common Core with Byrd-Bennett and says she’s a smart woman who can be successful if she’s able to take on Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“It’s just a question of, does she have the nerve to stand up to the mayor?” said Ravitch. “The mayor seems to be hell bent on closing schools and the question is, Is she going to have the nerve to say to him he’s wrong? Does she even want to say to him he’s wrong? I hope she does.”

Ravitch, a former assistant secretary of education for President George H. W. Bush, also talked about the competing philosophies of school reform in Chicago and nationwide.

Listen to her entire talk above and see the Twitter stream from this morning’s breakfast forum, which was sponsored by the City Club of Chicago.