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A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual
by Jennifer C. Berkshire, Jack Schneider
A perfectly timed book for the educational resistance—those of us who believe in public schools.
Culture wars have engulfed our schools. Extremist groups are seeking to ban books, limit what educators can teach, and threaten the very foundations of public education. What's behind these efforts? Why are our schools suddenly so vulnerable? And how can the millions of Americans who love their public schools fight back? In this concise, hard-hitting guide, journalist Jennifer C. Berkshire and education scholar Jack Schneider answer these questions and chart a way forward.
The Education Wars explains the sudden obsession with race and gender in schools, as well as the ascendancy of book-banning efforts. It offers a clear analysis of school vouchers and the impact they'll have on school finances. It deciphers the movement for "parents' rights," explaining the rights that students and taxpayers also have. And it reveals how the ostensible pursuit of "religious freedom" opens the door to discrimination against vulnerable children.
Berkshire and Schneider outline the core issues driving the education wars, offering essential information about issues, actors, and potential outcomes. In so doing, they lay out what is at stake for parents, teachers, and students and provide a road map for ensuring that public education survives this present assault.
A book that will enrage and enlighten the millions of citizens who believe in their public schools, here is a long-overdue handbook and guide to action.
"Berkshire and Schneider do a fabulous job highlighting hypocrisy ... 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. " —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[Berkshire and Schneider] 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." —Booklist
"A history of the nation's cultural conflicts over public education and a call to action in our current one... . Readers will come away inspired and, hopefully, energized." —Kirkus Reviews
"Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of public education in the United States. Berkshire and Schneider provide an important context for the assault on our children's freedom to learn, along with a blueprint for how to survive these antidemocratic attacks and win the education wars." —Heather McGhee, bestselling author of The Sum of Us
"Who would want to 'take down the education system as we know it'—and why? Read this fast-paced, lucid, and gripping account to understand who is behind the escalating attacks on public education and what, exactly, they seek. And if you care about the future, share the stories here of how concerned communities are rising to protect our schools. They need help." —Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains
This information about The Education Wars, Jack Schneider was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jennifer C. Berkshire is a freelance journalist and a host of the education podcast Have You Heard. The co-author (with Jack Schneider) of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and The Education Wars (both published by The New Press), she lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Jack Schneider is the author of six books, including A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and The Education Wars (both co-authored with Jennifer C. Berkshire and published by The New Press). An award-winning scholar, he is a host of the education podcast Have You Heard and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.
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