A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door

August 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.