Empowering the Poor: Why Justice Requires School Choice / Edition 1

by David Van Heemst

Overview

Do vouchers offer real hope for economically disadvantaged students in American schools? David Van Heemst contends that school choice will give every parent, a voucher to select schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578861194
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	10/21/2004
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

David Van Heemst is professor of political science at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois. He was the first political scientist ever hired by the university and built the political science program; he has taught there for the past eleven years. He is co-author of the forthcoming Idols of Our Time, second edition.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 1. How Are the Poor Doing in Our Current U.S. System? Chapter 4 2. Justice: A Philosophy of Empowering All Parents Chapter 5 3. The Supreme Court Aids the Poor Chapter 6 4. Elements of a Good School-Choice Plan Chapter 7 5. What Is Happening in the United States with School Choice? Chapter 8 6. The Poor Benefit From School Choice Chapter 9 Conclusion Chapter 10 Select Bibliography Chapter 11 Index Chapter 12 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

David Van Heemst has provided us with a useful overview of the arguments for parental choice of schools as a matter of fundamental justice for poor families, a dimension too often forgotten in the arguments over market discipline and unfounded predictionsof new inequalitiessss

Charles L. Glenn

David Van Heemst has written a thoughtful and comprehensive treatment of the most compelling civil rights issue of our time: the provision of equal educational opportunities for all American schoolchildren. Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, a wide chasm continues to separate children in terms of access to education. Van Heemst demonstrates that parental choice is the only way to empower economically disadvantaged families to secure the high-quality education their children desperately need. It is a timely book on a topic of immediate and urgent concern to all Americans.

Clint Bolick

Here is the book that every parent, school administrator, and state legislator needs to read. Van Heemst picks up on the current changes taking place in school governance across the nation, ranging from Supreme Court decisions on down to local experiments. He, like others, is troubled by the failure of so many schools to serve those who most need a good education. He proposes a new public system of school choice that will empower the poor and do justice to every child. Public discussion of American education should not continue without attention to Van Heemst's argument and proposal.

James W. Skillen

A careful, persuasive, scholarly argument about one of the great issues facing American education. A must-read for anyone interested in overcoming poverty in America.

Ronald J. Sider