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Jack Schneider

Jennifer Berkshire

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School Hardcover – November 17, 2020

by Jack Schneider (Author), Jennifer Berkshire (Author)

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A trenchant analysis of how public education is being destroyed in overt and deceptive ways--and how to fight back
If America's public schools don't survive the COVID-19 pandemic, it won't just be due to the virus. Opponents of public education have long sought to dismantle our system of free, universal, and taxpayer-funded schooling. But the present crisis has provided them with their best opportunity ever to realize that aim. Books like Jane Mayer's Dark Money and Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains sounded a clear warning about the influence that right-wing plutocrats increasingly exert over American politics. Now, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door takes their analyses a step further, addressing an urgent question: Why is the right so fixated on dismantling public education in the United States?

Education historian Jack Schneider and journalist Jennifer Berkshire trace the war on public education to its origins, offering the deep backstory necessary to understand the threat presently posed to America's schools. The book also looks forward to imagine how current policy efforts will reshape the educational landscape and remake America's future. A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door offers readers a lively, accessible, yet scholarly view of a decades-long conservative cause: unmaking the system that serves over 90% of students in the U.S.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The New Press
Publication date

November 17, 2020
Dimensions

5.75 x 1.5 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

1620974940
ISBN-13

978-1620974940
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire offer a powerful analysis of the predatory, profit-seeking forces that threaten our nation's public schools. As they show, the old ideas of the radical right are more dangerous than ever, and are advancing more rapidly than we realize. If you care about the future of our society, read this book."-- Diane Ravitch, author of Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools

"How did the once-fringe quest to turn public education into a profit-making industry get so close to wrecking our schools? Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire pull back the curtain on the right-wing ideologues, billionaire donors and for-profit entrepreneurs who have masked their true purposes well enough to ensnare many who should know better. Read this keenly argued and convincing book to understand that if we lose our public schools, we lose the 'we' of 'We the people.'"-- Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: the Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

"An excellent choice for teachers to understand the politics of their profession, and for people committed to supporting and improving public education."-- Booklist

"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."-- Publishers Weekly

"A vigorous, well-informed broadside against the marketization of the education system in the U.S."-- Kirkus Reviews

"This well researched, carefully argued, and alarming book supplements those by Diane Ravitch and Andrea Gabor."-- Library Journal

"A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door charts the steady undermining of the notion of education as a public good to be supported by public money, which has only exacerbated the educational divide between the haves and have nots. Forces are prepared to finish off public education once and for good, using pandemic-driven shortage of resources as the ultimate rationale. Scary stuff."-- John Warner, Chicago Tribune

"The great benefit of the book is that it connects hundreds of established dots into a flashing arrow: this is the end game, the crushing of once-healthy public schools, monetizing their resources and selling them off for parts. It accurately represents where we are, in the midst of a pandemic and constitutional crisis. The wolf is truly at the door... So--read this book, whether you're a veteran educator or a kindergarten parent. It's accurate and sharp, the best education book I've read this year."-- Nancy Flanagan, Teacher in a Strange Land

"Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire's A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School is not science fiction, but it could be the premise for a good film. The book asks us to imagine a future in which the growing movement of school privatizers in the United States totally have their way. Just as with good sci-fi, the authors make a compelling case that, based on our current trajectory, a nightmare future is closer than we think."-- Jon Shelton, Jacobin Magazine

About the Author

Jack Schneider is the author of three books, a co-author (with Jennifer Berkshire) of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School (The New Press), and an award-winning education historian. He is a co-host of the education podcast "Have You Heard" and lives in Massachusetts.

Jennifer Berkshire writes about education and politics for the Nation, the New Republic, the Baffler, and other publications. The creator and co-host of the education policy podcast "Have You Heard," she teaches aspiring podcasters in the journalism program at Boston College. A licensed public school teacher, Berkshire lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The New Press (November 17, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1620974940
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1620974940
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.5 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #107,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Charter Schools
- #17 in Educational Law & Legislation Law
- #147 in History of Education

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108 ratings

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Jack Schneider
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Jack Schneider is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he leads the Beyond Test Scores Project. An award-winning scholar and teacher, his work broadly explores the influence of history, culture, and rhetoric in education policy. The author of four books, Dr. Schneider has explored why particular ideas gain policy traction, how public perception of schools takes shape, why education reform so often fails, and how organizations improve. He writes frequently about education in outlets like the Atlantic, the New York Times and the Washington Post, and (along with Jennifer Berkshire) is co-host of the educational policy podcast "Have You Heard."
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Jennifer Berkshire
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Jennifer Berkshire writes about education and politics for the Nation, the New Republic, the Baffler, and other publications.The creator and co-host of the education policy podcast “Have You Heard,” she teaches aspiring podcasters in the journalism program at Boston College and the Labor Studies program at UMass Amherst. Berkshire discovered her passion for storytelling while covering a series of bitter labor battles that wracked her native Midwest in the early 1990’s. A licensed public school teacher, Berkshire lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

108 global ratings

5 star		74%
4 star		16%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		3%

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YM

Well written and informative.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

I’ve been interested in the direction education is going in. Book provided good information.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Karen Anderson

The Future of Public Schools is at Risk

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 10, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book documents the rise of big money groups trying to privatize public schools in whatever ways they can. The will use charter schools (preferably with a strong for-profit component), vouchers, or online education to achieve their goals. These tactics have already harmed public schools in Arizona and other states. Their rhetoric promises "business methods," individualized instruction, and parental choice while delivering standardized curricula taught by machines or by underpaid teachers or student monitors, few or no social interactions by students, and the demonization of teachers for most communities. For the rich, standard in-person instruction by highly qualified teachers in a campus setting will be the norm. They hope to cut taxes drastically and use remaining tax moneys to make profits. Read this and be informed.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

A must-read for everyone who cares about public education

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2020

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How did a batch of far-right fringe ideas about turning public education into a private industry survive for so long and gain so much ground in recent years? What are the beliefs behind the movement to disrupt education, and how have they played out in the policies developed? Schneider and Berkshire have the answers in this clear and thoroughly-researched look at the modern ed reform movement.

If you have been trying to figure out what is going on with public education, why schools seem to be under attack, why the very idea of public education seems to be out of favor with some political leaders, this book makes it clear. Not a screed that paints the disrupt ed crowd as a bunch of evil monsters, but a thoughtful explication of all sides, this book helps the reader understand what these folks are doing and why they think it's a good idea. Vouchers, neo-vouchers, charters, school ratings, teacher deprofessionalization, profiteering-- it's all here.

This is critical reading for anyone who cares about public education and wants to better understand just how much danger that bedrock institution is in these days. A perfect gift for every teacher you know and every person who's expressed the slightest curiosity about what's going on in the education world.

10 people found this helpful

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an interested reader

If you care about public education...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

Read this book! And be worried. Very worried. Because those who are stealing public education have money, power, and media behind them. (Have you see this book reviewed in mainstream media? I haven't. That makes my point.) Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door tells who these people who would privatize public education are, what they are up to, how they're going about the steal. It really puts the pieces together, of what's been done to public education The authors have done a ton of research and present it in a lively, engaging way. This book deserves a much wider audience than it seems to be reaching. I know there are many issues competing for everyone's attention, but the privatization of public education should surely set off alarms.

2 people found this helpful

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Gretchen Conley

Beware the wolves at the schoolhouse door!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door underscores how important it is to band together and fight for public education, the cornerstone of our democracy. Forces have been at work for decades to undermine and erode our nation’s public education system. These forces present themselves in many forms, yet they are unified in their message. They patiently churn along using legislation and whatever means possible to achieve their end goals of privatization, the weakening of unions, and smaller education budgets. Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire give a detailed account of the schemes of privatizers, profit-makers, and religious ideologues. They also do an excellent job of defining what public education should be.
“Education, we might recall, is our collective effort to realize for all young people their full human potential, regardless of circumstance.”
Not only must we band together to fight off the wolves, we must band together with a unifying vision for what our public schools should be.

7 people found this helpful

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Jim D

History interesting, but little prediction or recommendations.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 27, 2022

Verified Purchase

History interesting, but few predictions of recommendations.

Helpful

Timkins Policy Institute

Education Policy Book of the Year!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

First, the book is great! In every chapter you will learn something about private education you did not know. Well researched by on the ground school by school, teacher by teacher reporting. Every public school teacher, administrator and education policy maker should have this as part of their library. The success of this small volume is the reader will come away with a very different view of charter schools, private schools and the tax giveaways to millionaires. All done at the expense of children and their schooling.

4 people found this helpful

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Jon K. Shelton

If you care about public education, this is an essential book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 24, 2020

Verified Purchase

Berkshire and Schneider have done us all a valuable public service: allowing us to envision a future in which the privatization movement realizes its ultimate vision of completely dismantling public education. In this readable, thoughtful, and well-researched book, they show us that we should be afraid of this future. Without romanticizing a public education system that has its flaws, the authors challenge us to take action to save the most American of American institutions: public education.

2 people found this helpful

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