A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist shows how conservatives have pushed for a revolution in public education--one that threatens the existence of the traditional public school.
Opens with a superb survey ... The narrative can be plodding, with long detours into state-by-state and city-by-city political and court battles. And, curiously, it ends before the arrival of the Covid pandemic and the convulsions of school closings, book banning and school culture wars ... Still, the book is a timely history.
For someone who seems inclined to question the motives of those who favor school choice, Ms. Fitzpatrick doesn’t seem much interested in why others oppose it ... It is a shame, then, that with the exception of a few words in the introduction, Ms. Fitzpatrick’s analysis ends in 2019.
This book does not offer any solutions or suggest any governmental or educational policies that would solve the problems it identifies, but will still likely appeal to general readers.
