Review by Booklist Review
Education historian Schneider and editor Berkshire situate Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in the context of the decades-long school-privatization movement. This impactful book explores conservative criticisms of public education, including union power, collectivism, and economic inefficiency. Rooted in the American mythos of individualism and the free market, conservatives view education as product and family as consumer with the right to exercise deregulated, market-based school choice. The title's metaphor refers to conservatism waiting for an opportunity to exploit gaps in public support of education to finalize privatizing it. Schneider and Berkshire hold a cautionary tone while examining each philosophy and the tangible, problematic ramifications of enacting them. They expose egregious scandals among charter, virtual, and for-profit schools. The book is concise but armed with research from conservative and libertarian publications revealing unabashedly destructive intentions for public schools. Nonetheless, the authors affirm a hopeful vision of the humane, community-based nature of schools. An excellent choice for teachers to understand the politics of their profession, and for people committed to supporting and improving public education.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Schneider (Beyond Test Scores) and Berkshire, cohosts of the podcast Have You Heard, deliver a thorough exposé of the war on public education. They identify U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos as the face of a push toward "consumer-driven" education, and place this campaign within the larger context of "efforts by the radical right to fundamentally alter the American political system." Detailing the rise of charter schools, Schneider and Berkshire show how vouchers and tax-credit scholarships divert public funds to private, religiously affiliated institutions. They document numerous fraud cases related to charter schools, and point out that exemptions from federal and state regulations and antidiscrimination laws allow these schools to keep out poor, underprepared, disabled, and special needs students. The authors also describe how bipartisan attacks on teachers' unions have contributed to a rise in the "gig economy" model of for-profit school chains that give teachers "meager" health benefits and encourage them to apply for unemployment in the summer. Though somewhat vague on how to roll back these alarming trends, Schneider and Berkshire make a persuasive case that public education is under serious threat. Parents, teachers, and progressive policy makers will learn much from this well-documented account. (Dec.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Schneider and Berkshire, hosts of the education podcast Have You Heard, clearly and concisely present the many battles in the war against public education. The authors explain their stance on public vs. private education--by publicly educating our young in the best way possible, all of society benefits, while private education tends to favor individuals with wealth and privilege. Schneider and Berkshire explain past and current dogma and ideology, explore changes already occurring, and offer glimpses into the future. They also recount the many ways public education is being threatened: charter school fraud, attempts to overturn teacher unionization, public funding of private schools, and inadequate teacher compensation. The authors note that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's policies are playing a major role in dismantling public education, emphasizing consumer-driven education and providing religiously affiliated institutions with government funding through neo-vouchers known as tax-credit scholarships. As districts and schools compete for tuition dollars, administrators stress marketing rather than learning and equity. VERDICT This well-researched, carefully argued, and alarming book supplements those by Andrea Gabor and Diane Ravitch.--Jacqueline Snider, Toronto
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A stern warning about the conservative agenda to tear down the public education system. Schneider and Berkshire, hosts of the education podcast Have You Heard, present a cogent argument against the ongoing assault on our public schools as an institution. For decades now, there has been a movement to make education something families should be able to shop for, be it public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, or home-schooling. The authors examine the ideological roots of the movement and the core policies of the dismantling agenda. They believe that the conservative animus against public education is caused by its high tax cost in state budgets, the unionization of its workforce, the generally progressive curriculum, and the host of regulations and attendant bureaucracy. Curiously, the authors do not consider in much depth the roles of bigotry and classism within the traditions of local control, taxpayer support, and open access, but they offer particularly good explanations of neo-vouchers--"a cottage industry of fraud and chaos," in one reporter's words--education savings accounts, scam-laden building leases and management fees, and the private-governance model for charter schools. They also deliver a rather dire picture of the role of teachers, all of whom are underpaid, especially in the virtual-learning environment, where educators are reduced to helpers who will inevitably find their way into the gig economy. Consequently, if you don't have to pay union wages for teachers, you will free up money for advertising, which will become an increasingly expensive part of the school picture as various school types compete for student tuition dollars. Some progressives, too, have shown their anxiousness to "forc[e] competition on a public education monopoly," which shadows the conservative argument that "if the taxpayer is paying for the education"--as in charter schools--"it's public education." A vigorous, well-informed broadside against the marketization of the education system in the U.S. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
