Home Articles Reader Opinion Editorial Book Reviews Discussion Writers Guide About TCRecord
transparent 13
Topics
Discussion
My Experience
Technology - Good for Students AND Teachers
Fiddling with Indicators while using Toxic Tests
Ode to Dewey
Clearly Articulated Proposal--Thank You!
Announcements
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIALLY ENGAGED EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP
Call for Rethinking Higher Education Book Series (Springer)
 

The War Against America's Public Schools: Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education


reviewed by Patrick J. McEwan - 2002

coverTitle: The War Against America's Public Schools: Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education
Author(s): Gerald W. Bracey
Publisher: Allyn and Bacon, Needham Heights, MA
ISBN: 0321080734 , Pages: 288, Year: 2001
Search for book at Amazon.com

Gerald Bracey doesn’t mince words.  There is a war, he argues, being waged against public schools.  Its generals are Chester Finn, Eric Hanushek, Milton Friedman, and Paul Peterson.  They plot strategy in darkened chambers of the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution, arming their minions in the financial press with jumbled statistics and specious overstatements.  Their goal is to privatize, commercialize, and ultimately destroy public education (and presumably the American Federation of Teachers if it stumbles into the melee).  In this book, The War Against America's Public Schools, Gerald Bracey mounts a nine-chapter defense that is forceful and occasionally thought provoking, but not always convincing.   Chapter 1 describes the conservative forces arrayed against public schools.  This is familiar territory for casual observers of the “school choice” debate, but Bracey presents it with a vigor that occasionally lapses into paranoia.  The Spencer Foundation is—a little bizarrely—described as a conservative foundation that is not “neutral” or “idea-oriented” (p. 4).  Whipping boys like William Bennett are rightly chastised for mangling statistical data—do we ever... (preview truncated at 150 words.)


To view the full-text for this article you must be signed-in with the appropriate membership. Please review your options below:

Sign-in
Email:
Password:
Store a cookie on my computer that will allow me to skip this sign-in in the future.
Send me my password -- I can't remember it
 
Purchase this Article
Purchase The War Against America's Public Schools: Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education
Individual-Resource passes allow you to purchase access to resources one resource at a time. There are no recurring fees.		$12
Become a Member
Online Access
With this membership you receive online access to all of TCRecord's content. The introductory rate of $25 is available for a limited time.		$25
Print and Online Access
With this membership you receive the print journal and free online access to all of TCRecord's content.		$210


Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record Volume 104 Number 5, 2002, p. 975-978
https://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 10882, Date Accessed: 1/25/2020 9:11:50 PM

Purchase Reprint Rights for this article or review
 
Article Tools
Email this article
Print this article
Post a Comment
Related Articles

Related Discussion
 
Post a Comment | Read All

About the Author
  • Patrick McEwan
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    E-mail Author
    PATRICK J. McEWAN is an Assistant Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests include the economics of education and education policy in Latin America.
 
Member Center
Welcome!
Sign-in
Submit My Work
TCR @ Your Library
Book Reviews @ Your Library
In Print
This Month's Issue

Submit
EMAIL

Twitter

RSS
 
Add TC Record RSS feeds to your site
Copyright 2020 Teachers College, Columbia University. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Copyright Agreement