Routledge The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education (Critical Social Thought)

The End of Public Schools analyzes the effect of foundations, corporations, and non-governmental organizations on the rise of neoliberal principles in public education. By first contextualizing the privatization of education within the context of a larger educational crisis, and with particular emphasis on the Gates Foundation and influential state and national politicians, it describes how specific policies that limit public control are advanced across all levels. Informed by a thorough understanding of issues such as standardized testing, teacher tenure, and charter schools, David Hursh provides a political and pedagogical critique of the current school reform movement, as well details about the increasing resistance efforts on the part of parents, teachers, and the general public. Review "Everyone who believes that education fundamentally serves a public good should read David Hursh’s sobering account of today’s neoliberal reform movement. His documentation of the enormous growth of big-money's clout and the manipulation of data to privatize public education is sobering. His call for a new democratic social imaginary rooted in organized activism of educators, parents, and students is compelling and needed." --Christine E. Sleeter, Professor Emerita, College of Professional Studies, California State University, Monterey Bay, USA"This book is shocking and important. Few people have any real sense of what is happening to public education in the US – how much has changed and how much is changing. Hursh documents the extent of privatization inits many forms, and the lack of transparency in or democratic oversight of the processes involved. He also proposes a different vision of public education to that of the ‘market fundamentalists’. The book should be very widely read – before it is too late!" --Stephen J. Ball, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, University College London, UK About the Author David W. Hursh is Professor of Teaching and Curriculum in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the University of Rochester, NY, USA.