Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice - Softcover

Stern, Sol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594030588 ISBN 13: 9781594030581

Publisher: Encounter Books, 2004

Synopsis

The first book to transform school choice from an abstract policy issue into a question of basic personal freedom--and indeed, for minority children at the bottom of the social ladder, into a question of survival.

About this title

About the Author

Sol Stern

From Publishers Weekly

Using engaging personal narrative, journalist Stern explores the demand for school choice among inner-city families. He takes readers on his personal journey from left-wing politics in the 1960s, when he edited and wrote for the leftist magazine Ramparts, to his current position as champion for the libertarian right in its relentless crusade to privatize education. Stern excels in presenting historical detail, and his history of the politics of New York City public schools and their teachers' unions is both revealing and instructive. He is also a captivating storyteller, and his point of view, as a parent of New York City schoolchildren, sets his book somewhat apart from other ideological discourses in the annals of think tank-sponsored "school choice" writings. As a leftist turned "educational traditionalist," Stern uses political metaphors cleverly: there is a "Berlin Wall" between private and public schooling that must be broken down for liberty to flourish; teachers' unions are the "ruling class in education" and the school choice movement is "countercultural in the best sense of the word." Stern makes a strong case for dismantling public education and subjecting it to market forces. However, his book grasps educational theories and practices only at a superficial level. He calls well-researched theories of cognition progressive educational "fads" and sees multicultural education as "political correctness" that hurts black children. These weaknesses lessen Stern's credibility, but his account will be of interest to those engaged in the school choice debate.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594030588
• ISBN 13: 9781594030581
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260