A look at how the push for school choice at the cost of true public education has occurred slowly over many years. This is a heartbreaking must-read for those who want to understand what's going on in our education system so they can advocate for public schools for all.

The topic was very interesting and very well-researched. I wish it had covered some more reasons for the American public education system’s decline. But overall a really interesting book. We will definitely be purchasing.

THE DEATH OF PUBLIC SCHOOL by Cara Fitzpatrick, a Pulitzer Prize winning education journalist and editor at Chalkbeat, is subtitled "How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America" and seems particularly timely as another school year begins and as education issues are becoming more of a focus in the ongoing culture wars. One quick example is the increased state involvement in the Houston school district and a decision to replace school libraries with supervised discipline centers, profiled earlier this month with an article in The New York Times and an interview from NPR with the new superintendent, plus concerned community members. Fitzpatrick's new text has been praised for its careful research on history and coverage of complex topics like vouchers, charter schools, religious education, and the school choice movement in general. She looks at the period beginning in the 1950s and introduces lesser-known activists like Jesuit priest Virgil Blum, Wisconsin state legislator Polly Williams, and legal advocate, Clint Bolick. By necessity she touches on race, class, merit, content and curriculum, autonomy, trust, standardized testing, and funding, but tends to leave the reader looking for more analysis and possible solutions.

We certainly have work to do to improve schools and to find common goals. Phi Delta Kapan has been surveying attitudes towards public school for over 50 years; the PDK 2022 survey results are illuminating. Note, for example, how few parents (only 37%) would want their child to become a public school teacher in their community. Or, that the majority of public school parents (58%) would strongly support armed police in the school while less than half (44%) strongly support mental health screenings. Fitzpatrick does not look at the school years from 2020 onward, but THE DEATH OF PUBLIC SCHOOL merits attention and received a starred review from Booklist. Hopefully, studies like these will prompt more civil discussions about possible choices, post-COVID changes, and needed student support.

Relevant links:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/us/texas-houston-schools-libraries-takeover.html
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/02/1191519700/houstons-plan-to-convert-some-school-libraries
https://www.chalkbeat.org/
https://pdkpoll.org/2022-pdk-poll-results/

We all absolutely need to read this. I work in schools and over the last decade enrollment in the public schools dropped so dramatically that the school board closed five (or more) schools and tore them down. Now the children in those neighborhoods travel farther to attend school. The city has become unwalkable so now parents have to find time to drive the children across town to school.
Instead of having small class sizes, which we have needed since I was a little one, they just pack the kids into the remaining schools.
Frustrated parents then move their kids into the charter schools, which actually are not impressive and lack in special education services.
So yeah. I have a lot of feelings about this. A lot. Cities used to be proud of their schools and now we just move the kids to schools on the other side of town. This book validated my rage.
Thanks for that. Loved it.

I liked this book fine but felt like the subtitle was misleading. This book is about school choice (vouchers and charter schools) and less about the entirety of public schools changing over time. There is nothing on tax codes that changed public school funding. home schooling, etc. What is in the book is well researched and deeply reported, but the writing itself is a little dry and lacking flow. Its a solid book for anyone wanting a detailed look into school choice over the last 60 years.

This books while looking at the title would seem single partisan-is actually looks at the big picture of the decline of the American public education system. I liked how it started back on the other side of Brown vs Board of Education. There was a lot of repetition of ideas throughout, but over all a nice job.

The Death of Public School details how conservatives have used "school choice" to privatize education. From the backlash to desegregation (Brown v Board of Education) to the push for vouchers in the 90s, Fitzpatrick does a great job of laying out the arguments and policies conservatives used. Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in this history but it does lag a bit in certain places.
Thanks to Netgalley and Basic Books for the free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

In The Death of Public School, Pulitzer Prize winner Cara Fitzpatrick presents a chronological examination of the United States' struggle to define and redefine "public education." From the South's "massive resistance" to desegregation in the 1950s, through Milwaukee's voucher battles in the 1990s, to today's variety of "school choice" options, Fitzpatrick outlines how the US has answered the questions, "What types of education can public money pay for, and for whom?" At the same time, she shows the loopholes and alliances that individual states have used to challenge and defy federal limitations.

In an accessible and well-ordered volume that is not nearly as partisan as the title makes it seem, Fitzpatrick offers a comprehensive accounting from across the nation. And while she never stoops to tell the reader what to think or how to feel, she clearly shows that the ongoing efforts to politicize, privatize, and commodify K-12 schools are definitely part of the "tradition" of public education in America.