08/31/2020
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.)
Praise for A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door:
“This book is critical reading for anyone hoping to understand the complex of forces joining to ‘disrupt’ education, as well as understanding where they came from, how they got here, and why this moment in history is different from all those that came before.”
—Peter Green, Forbes
“A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door charts the steady undermining of the notion of education as a public good to be supported by public money, which has only exacerbated the educational divide between the haves and the have-nots. Forces are prepared to finish off public education once and for good, using pandemic-driven shortage of resources as the ultimate rationale. Scary stuff.”
—John Warner, Chicago Tribune
“Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire’s A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door is not science fiction, but it could be the premise for a good film. The book asks us to imagine a future in which the growing movement of school privatizers in the United States totally have their way. Just as with good sci-fi, the authors make a compelling case that, based on our current trajectory, a nightmare future is closer than we think.”
—Jon. K. Shelton, Jacobin
“In this eminently readable book, the authors describe the ‘unmaking’ of public education and the players behind this effort. They explain how the attacks on public schools are part of a larger effort to shrink government and in general what the public expects from the public sphere. . . . Schneider and Berkshire demonstrate that attacking public education has also torn at the social fabric of America.”
—Wendy Lecker, Stamford Advocate
“Their insightful analysis and synthesis will tremendously contribute to the education and political science literature and beyond. This is a book for parents, teachers, and others who commit themselves to improving public education and care about the future of the American society.”
—DongMei Li, Teachers College Record
"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."
—Publishers Weekly
"An excellent choice for teachers to understand the politics of their profession, and for people committed to supporting and improving public education."
—Booklist
" A vigorous, well-informed broadside against the marketization of the education system in the U.S."
—Kirkus Reviews
“[A] well-researched, carefully argued, and alarming book.”
—Library Journal
“Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire offer a powerful analysis of the predatory, profit-seeking forces that threaten our nation’s public schools. As they show, the old ideas of the radical right are more dangerous than ever, and are advancing more rapidly than we realize. If you care about the future of our society, read this book.”
—Diane Ravitch, author of Slaying Goliath and Reign of Error
“How did the once-fringe quest to turn public education into a profit-making industry get so close to wrecking our schools? Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire pull back the curtain on the right-wing ideologues, billionaire donors, and for-profit entrepreneurs who have masked their true purposes well enough to ensnare many who should know better. Read this keenly argued and convincing book to understand that if we lose our public schools, we lose the ‘we’ of ‘We, the People.’”
—Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
“A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door is meticulously researched, illuminating, and timely, offering badly needed context for our contemporary debates about what public education is for and who it should serve. The forces looking to destroy public education have a recognizable strategy in their crusade to privatize and demolish; this is the playbook we need if we are going to join together and fight back.”
—Noliwe Rooks, chair of Africana Studies, Brown University, and author of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education
“A scholar and a journalist combine their considerable skills in this book to give us a clear-eyed, searing indictment of the privatizing and profit-seeking threats to our schools. Schneider and Berkshire cut through the rhetorical fog surrounding a host of free-market reforms and innovations—from vouchers to virtual learning—to expose a strategic and terribly dangerous undermining of public education.”
—Mike Rose, author of Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education
“Our public schools, imperfect as they are, remain the best opportunity we’ve got for a more just and equal society. Philadelphia was able to beat back almost two decades of privatization and austerity because parents, educators, and youth formed a united front. By taking on these wildly unpopular attempts to destroy public education, we build not just a stronger and more responsive school system but a better democracy. This book is an urgent guide for the battles to come.”
—Helen Gym, member, Philadelphia City Council
12/01/2020
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
2020-09-10
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.
