The Education Wars

Starred review from May 6, 2024
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.

May 15, 2024
Public schools, long accepted as a public good, have become a political pawn in the present, divisive national climate. Parents are fearful, and the general citizenry feels somewhat helpless in the face of a never-before-seen activism in school-board meetings and elections. With books being banned, and curriculum changes being made by those who have no background in education, many community members feel powerless. The authors, a journalist and an education scholar, attempt to delineate ways in which something can be done. They give examples of successful pushback to draconian changes, such as the work that students in Georgia did, and also of successful teachers' protests in other states. They debunk the theory behind some of the more popular proposals--"funding the student," for one--and show the downside of so-called religious freedom. By outlining the core issues, the authors show a path for protecting the fundamentals of what makes public schools so important. This is a good addition to a growing body of protest.

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