The public policy book of the year… [Lieberman] scrupulously, thoughtfully, and rigorously advances his position by examining trends that will erode public education even further in the near future… He [also] sets out an agenda for launching for-profit schooling, discusses obstacles that lie in its way and a strategy for overcoming them.
This book both delighted and astonished me… In recent years there have been much-celebrated books on American education. None are as good as this one… Lieberman knows the literature, knows schools, knows teachers, administrators and their unions, and understands monopolies and markets. The book is thus not only a wonderful exploration of the educational hole we’re in, but a primer on the efficacy of markets as well.
The most comprehensive account yet of how the public schools are failing us and why. It is exhaustive in its detail, brutally honest—and politically incorrect. Everyone who cares about American education should read it. No one who does will ever look at the public schools in quite the same way again. Myron Lieberman has spent his adult life working in and around schools, studying them with care and intensity, and producing a steady stream of books and articles that challenge conventional wisdom and the powers that protect it… [Public Education ] deserves to be hailed as a landmark event in our nation’s struggle for better schools—and it couldn’t come at a better time.
Terry M. Moe Education Review
The most comprehensive account yet of how the public schools are failing us and why. It is exhaustive in its detail, brutally honest—and politically incorrect. Everyone who cares about American education should read it. No one who does will ever look at the public schools in quite the same way again. Myron Lieberman has spent his adult life working in and around schools, studying them with care and intensity, and producing a steady stream of books and articles that challenge conventional wisdom and the powers that protect it… [Public Education ] deserves to be hailed as a landmark event in our nation’s struggle for better schools—and it couldn’t come at a better time.
Washington Post Education Review - Terry M. Moe
The public policy book of the year… [Lieberman] scrupulously, thoughtfully, and rigorously advances his position by examining trends that will erode public education even further in the near future… He [also] sets out an agenda for launching for-profit schooling, discusses obstacles that lie in its way and a strategy for overcoming them.
According to Lieberman, the notion that our founding fathers viewed public education as a way to educate citizens is preposterous. Democracy is not sustained by public schools, he claims; on the contrary, public schools are hotbeds for racism. A fierce opponent of the National Education Association, Lieberman grinds his ax against the public education monopoly with provocation. The author's analysis of societal trends and the declining social capital (i.e., the social relationships that foster children's growth and development) is both brilliant and chilling. He advocates a competitive market system for education, where for-profit schools would be a major but not exclusive component of the industry (a plan he details in Privatization and Educational Choice , LJ 9/15/89). His view is strictly an economic perspective, and he leaves other considerations aside. This book is an important challenge to supporters of public education and adds fire to the education debate. For all academic education and social sciences collections.-- Arla Lindgren, St. John's Univ., New York
Public education is irreversibly doomed, says Lieberman, because government neglects its role as protector of consumer interests in order to protect its role as producer. He argues that only the free market can save education, and proposes a three-sector industry encompassing public, non-profit, and for-profit schools. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
