I started reading this book as an egalley and it just didn't work in that format for me. I would gladly return to it as a physical book.

The only reason my library is unlikely to purchase this title is because we are a school library and our professional book section sees no circulation. I will likely purchase it for myself, though, and read and heavily annotate it.

My review here is vastly overdue. I apologize for the oversight.

I have read some of this book, admittedly not all of it, but feel like this is a very important topic. One more people should read. I find myself seething with anger sometimes reading this and similar books, pointing out institutional injustices that undermine the foundation of our democracy, our country. It is particularly appalling when the people who perpetuate this type of systemic tearing of ideals typically is the ones the loudest proclaiming these are their values.

While I cannot address the entirety of the book, as not yet finished, I will say what I’ve read is well written and researched. I would like to complete the book someday, if I can get beyond my own emotional reactions.

Many thanks to PublicAffairs/Bold Type Books for allowing me access to an early review copy. I ended up reading a print copy the library purchased.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I found this book to be compelling and realistic to the trials the educational system is experiencing today. The author touches on the obstacles public schools are experiencing as they suffer states cuts, the federal government working to promote charter schools and outcast teachers. The author focus on the historic points that lead to this point and reflects briefly on what it would take to repair the damage that has been inflicted. Public education is an constitutional right like our health. It is needed to lead democratic,civilized world.

Schoolhouse Burning is an eye-opening and thorough account of the history of public esteem of the public school system. Meticulously tracing the history from the Northwest Ordinances of the 1780s through the Brown v. Board decision in 1959, Black highlights the special treatment public education receives in the Constitution, the importance ascribed to schooling by former slaves during Reconstruction, and the firm requirement that the federal government imposed on Confederate states to provide for integrated public education in order to rejoin the Union.

This book offers a tremendous amount of historical context, particularly around desegregation efforts and where they were successful and where they stalled. I found the section about the desegregation of law schools and the Sweatt v. Painter decision particularly fascinating. I remember Sweatt being included in a list of terms in my AP US History class in high school, but the teacher saying we wouldn't have time to cover it, and all we needed to know was it was related to desegregation. But reading this book made me wish we had spent actual time on it. In particular, the argument that segregated law schools deprived the Black students of the benefits of exposure to their professional peers is a fascinating one to me.

While I was certainly aware that public education was regarded by the Founding Fathers as essential to creating a populace was able to engage in a democratic form of government, there are a number of arguments in this book that I found extremely compelling in framing the way we think about that fundamental statement. Some of those points are:

- Public education functions not only to teach students basics of reading, math, and government, but also to socialize students in how to interact with their peers and cooperate for the betterment of society. In this way, segregation is clearly antithetical to the goals of public schools by depriving students of interaction with their peers.

- School district lines are completely arbitrary and can be gerrymandered in the same way as Congressional districts. Having always attended school in an urban district that split on city boundaries, it did not occur to me that suburbs can and do consolidate and separate their school district boundaries to align with residential segregation (and that this could just as easily be done in a way to support integration).

- Education is a different kind of right than housing or food or other basic needs. The continuation of our form of government depends on a well-educated populace, and it is in the best interest of every citizen (regardless of whether they have children) to ensure that children are well-educated and able to carry on the country into its next generation.

What I did not feel was strong enough in this book was the teasing out of the distinction between widespread public schools and publicly available education through vouchers and charter schools. He gestures toward scalability and efficiency problems at the end, but dismisses the very question multiple times as a "distraction." As a product of struggling public schools who was given a scholarship to attend a private high school for 10th grade (but did not find that environment conducive to my learning), I have directly witnessed the impact of Mr. Black's cogent argument that private schools not only arose, but persist, strictly in resistance to desegregation efforts. But the idea that private school vouchers and charter schools do not fulfill the state's constitutional obligation to provide public education (should they be allowed to be implemented to the fullest extent their proponents would like) does not seem as "obvious" or "apparent" to me (a layperson) as it does to Mr. Black (a professor of constitutional law). I would have appreciated that aspect explored further, in lieu of arguments against public schools having a "monopoly" or charters not always performing to the standards of public schools, which to me do seem much more apparent and obvious.

Similarly, I think a lot more could have been said about recent attempts at undermining public education, especially in Kansas and Washington, where they have steadfastly refused to comply with court orders to adequately fund public schools and Kansas even tried to make it impossible for the judicial system to hold legislature accountable to their constitutional requirements. Or in New Orleans, where public schools have been completely replaced with charter schools following Hurricane Katrina. These are both briefly mentioned, but in my opinion, could have done much to bring the argument current. Although, I also did appreciate the timely updates to this book regarding the preliminary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public education funding.

I did also find this volume to be fairly repetitive among Black's main points, but overall I found the book a thought-provoking and worthwhile read.

Much appreciation to Perseus Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for the review.

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy by Derek W. Black takes a look on the assault on public schools through an analysis of what that means to our democracy from a moral and legal perspective. Mr. Black is a lack, a legal scholar, law professor, as well as a public school advocate who focuses on educational equality.

This was a fascinating book, which advocates the case for public education through a legal viewpoint and analysis of the history of the case for public education in America. The author makes his case in a clear and concise manner, as well as gives the reader an understanding of how, and why, did the smear campaign on public school began.

In Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy by Derek W. Black, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, provides context for the ongoing debate about public education, vouchers, charter schools, and more. It is an important book at a time when the Secretary of Education herself was hired for her outright hostility for public education and what it stand for (namely: she has to pay more taxes).

I did not realize that American’s Founding Fathers held public education in such high regard, figuring that the only way their experimental governing system through civic participation would work is if the electorate is educated. There weren’t many things they all agreed upon, so I was surprised to find out that public education was one of them.

Mr. Black goes on to trace the beginning of public education throughout the American Civil War, how the Southern states fought against educating freed slaves, the high regard freed slaves held public education, and of course the downhill spiral of the last few decades. The book goes on to explain vouchers, charter schools and other ways to divert money from public schools, as well as how those well-meaning systems have been manipulated and twisted from their original intent, as to be almost unrecognizable.

The author puts the blame squarely on the likes of DeVos and the Koch Brothers who went on decades long smear campaign with the intent of destroying public education. They want to completely dismantle public education, and replace it with privately run schools. Public education, however, is not a for-profit business, and it’s dangerous to see it as such. The Kochs, don’t only object to public education because it’s funded by taxpayers, they also believe that the kids are getting indoctrinated into left wing ideology, contrary to almost ever serious study ever done.

The author brings forth many court cases and legal decisions which support his case. He is optimistic, but barely, that the defunding of public education will stop if states make it a priority instead of breaking the system, then complaining that the system is broke.

Derek’s new book is a history lesson in how this nation’s founding fathers recognized that public education was critical to preserving a fragile new democracy and how education’s importance was cemented into our states’ constitutions (all 50 of them). Over 200 years later, after reconstruction, desegregation, vouchers and charter schools, unions and Betsy DeVos, it’s time to return to those original and wise ideas before it’s too late. This well-written and moving reminder is a critical piece of education at this moment in time.

This book illustrates how the legislative and judicial history of education in the United States has established a clear dedication to the fundamental right of education, and how education has been under threat for decades. It explains, in thoroughly well documented and surprisingly readable prose, how education is irrevocably tied to racial inequality and how the school voucher system grew out of attempts to avoid school integration.

As a layperson in this area (interested in education only as an informed citizen and a minor bureaucrat in higher ed), I found the historical context fascinating. It simultaneously provides justification for supporting the fundamental right to education and yet also spends time describing why originalists and libertarians oppose it. One of the most haunting elements is how those who oppose large government have co-opted both segregationists and parents who are just concerned about the quality of their children's schools to build a super-coalition.

I had expected less time to be spent on the past, but the concluding section about the present day does a remarkable job pulling the historical elements together. Honestly, I feel like this is practically required reading— it adds so much necessary context to conversations about education. Highly recommended.

Derek Black's "Schoolhouse Burning" is a comprehensive history and analysis of public education in America. This book enlightened me about the importance of education as a guiding feature of American democracy when this country was founded several hundred years ago. It also taught me about the Founding Fathers' failure to deem education a fundamental right, which has led to many often losing battles for those parties that have tried to ensure that all children are entitled to an equal, high-quality education. Unfortunately, as Black points out, there is an ongoing movement funded by the ultra wealthy and backed by state and federal governments to privatize education and to devalue the work that teachers do. For those curious about the historical role of public education and where we might be headed, "Schoolhouse Burning" is a solid read.