The Education Wars
A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An “invaluable guide” (Forbes) to understanding and winning the fight for our public schools
“Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of public education in the United States.” —Heather McGhee, bestselling author of The Sum of Us
Our public schools are on the front lines of a fierce battle. In communities across the nation, heated culture wars have erupted—threatening to undermine the very foundation of public education. Extremist groups are pushing book bans, demanding limits on what teachers can say about history, race, and gender, and rolling out aggressive campaigns for so-called “parents’ rights.” Meanwhile, the rise of school voucher programs diverts funding from public classrooms, putting critical resources—and students’ futures—at risk.
In this concise, incisive guide, which Kirkus Reviews describes as a “call to action,” journalist Jennifer C. Berkshire and education scholar Jack Schneider expose what’s driving these coordinated attacks and explain why schools are now so vulnerable. They tackle complex topics in “compact and accessible terms” (Jacobin), unpacking everything from book-banning trends and voucher schemes to the real stakes behind the “parents’ rights” rhetoric.
The Education Wars is more than an alarm; it’s a vital handbook for parents, educators, and citizens who care about the future of public education. Packed with timely information and actionable insights, this book charts a powerful “path for protecting the fundamentals of what makes public schools so important” (Booklist).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The "very existence of public schools" is being threatened, according to this essential overview of recent right-wing attacks on the teaching of material concerning race, gender identity, and sexuality. Journalist Berkshire and education policy scholar Schneider (co-authors of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door) contend that such attacks are merely the latest iteration of the right's longstanding agenda to privatize public education. By slandering public schools as radically left-wing, activists hope to siphon off students into charter schools and private Christian academies, starving the public education system of funding, according to the authors. Emphasizing that a common education is crucial to a healthy democracy, Berkshire and Schneider argue that broad resistance to what can otherwise seem like a niche culture war issue is necessary. Treating education as a public good critical to society's well-being is also the best resistance strategy, suggest the authors; by pushing back against individual parents asserting overweening authority in the classroom as undemocratic, leftists can effectively counter right-wing bluster over "parental rights." Berkshire and Schneider do a fabulous job highlighting hypocrisy (e.g., right-wingers harp on public schools' subpar test scores as a means of pushing more students into private schools—where many states don't track test results at all) while concisely cataloging the billionaires and think tanks funding this fight. It's an invaluable primer on what's motivating the public education culture wars.
