Collateral Damage: Corporatizing Public Schools--A Threat to Democracy / Edition 1

by Kenneth J. Saltman

Overview

From schools advertising McDonald’s, Nike, and Shell oil to military generals appointed as superintendents; from corporate CE's hailed as education experts to students suspended for wearing Pepsi tee shirts on Coke day; Collateral Damage sifts through a wide range of incidents to reveal how the rising corporatization of public schools needs to be understood as a part of a broader attack on the public sector. Uniquely, Collateral Damage considers the privatization of public education in relation to both globalization and local struggles over curriculum, schools, and culture.

Saltman describes the dangers to democracy posed by educational policy debates increasingly framed by the language and logic of the market. He reveals how the language of school choice, competition, monopoly, and accountability shifts the grounds of debate to naturalize education along business models rather than for the public good. The commercialization and militarization of public schools, and media images of out of control teachers reveal how political and economic struggles over privatization involve culture, citizenship, nation, identity, and even bodies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742501027
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/08/2000
Series:	Culture and Politics Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 8.94(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Kenneth J. Saltman is assistant professor in the Social and Cultural Studies in Education program at DePaul University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Educational Privatization and the Assault on Public Schools Chapter 3 Nothing Left to Choose: Education, Democracy, and School Choice Chapter 4 Coca Cola and the Commercialization of Public Schools Chapter 5 Collateral Damage Chapter 6 Pedagogues, Pedophiles, and Other Lovers: The Constructed Crises of the Predatory Teacher Chapter 7 Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Kenneth Saltman's important book arrives not a moment too soon…Collateral Damage is valuable not only for the well-reasoned political position the author takes, but also for the wealth of information it provides about commercialism in American public education. Given the largely uncritical public (as opposed to scholarly) discourse about privatization and commercialism in public education, Saltman's book is an especially useful and timely contribution.

Teachers College Record - Roslyn Arlin Mickelson Roslyn Arlin Mickelson

An insightful and timely examination of the corporatization of public education in the United States.Collateral Damage represents and important and provocative critique of the corporate sponsorship of education, linking this growing trend to globalization, a redefinition of public services as private commodities, and the militarization of the nation's public spaces. Saltman has presented a cogent analysis that is thoroughly accessible to scholars, laypeople, and all those interested in the nature of public education in the United States. Researchers, scholars, and educators at all levels, in particular, will find Collateral Damage a valuable resource and important contribution to the growing literature of the corporatization of public education.

Anthropology & Education Quarterly

Collateral Damage: Corporatizing Public Schools provides a brilliant expose of the hidden curriculum of school privatization. By deconstructing the logic of the market, Kenneth J. Saltman draws a sharp distinction between a reductionistic discourse of school management, choice, and accountability and the imperatives of a vibrant democracy that prioritizes equity, critical citizenship, and social justice. Collateral Damage is an indispensable reading for all educators who yearn to make schools and society more democratic and less discriminatory.

Donaldo Macedo

Readers of Saltman's work will rediscover that keeping schools public is essential to keeping democracy alive and vibrant. As such, Collateral Damage is a must read for any college-level course in the areas of sociology, foundations in education, teacher education, curriculum development, cultural studies, multiculturalism, and ethnic studies.

Pepi Leistyna

In this succinct book, Saltman delivers to the reader reasons to get outraged over, excited about, and committed to protecting public education as a public space where democracy can and must flourish.

Educational Researcher

Kenneth Saltman's important book arrives not a moment too soon…Collateral Damage is valuable not only for the well-reasoned political position the author takes, but also for the wealth of information it provides about commercialism in American public education. Given the largely uncritical public (as opposed to scholarly) discourse about privatization and commercialism in public education, Saltman's book is an especially useful and timely contribution.

Teachers College Record - Roslyn Arlin Mickelson

Readers of Saltman's work will rediscover that keeping schools public is essential to keeping democracy alive and vibrant. As such, Collateral Damage is a must read for any college-level course in the areas of sociology, foundations in education, teacher education, curriculum development, cultural studies, multiculturalism, and ethnic studies.--Pepi Leistyna, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Collateral Damage: Corporatizing Public Schools provides a brilliant expose of the hidden curriculum of school privatization. By deconstructing the logic of the market, Kenneth J. Saltman draws a sharp distinction between a reductionistic discourse of school management, choice, and accountability and the imperatives of a vibrant democracy that prioritizes equity, critical citizenship, and social justice. Collateral Damage is an indispensable reading for all educators who yearn to make schools and society more democratic and less discriminatory.--Donaldo Macedo, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Kenneth Saltman's important book arrives not a moment too soon...Collateral Damage is valuable not only for the well-reasoned political position the author takes, but also for the wealth of information it provides about commercialism in American public education. Given the largely uncritical public (as opposed to scholarly) discourse about privatization and commercialism in public education, Saltman's book is an especially useful and timely contribution.--Roslyn Arlin Mickelson "Teachers College Record "

From the Publisher

Kenneth Saltman's important book arrives not a moment too soon…Collateral Damage is valuable not only for the well-reasoned political position the author takes, but also for the wealth of information it provides about commercialism in American public education. Given the largely uncritical public (as opposed to scholarly) discourse about privatization and commercialism in public education, Saltman's book is an especially useful and timely contribution.
— Roslyn Arlin Mickelson

Teachers College Record