Reviews for The School Choice Wars

The average rating for The School Choice Wars based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-07-31 00:00:00 Lynn Baranyi This is one of the few books that competently challenges the status quo on the issue of public schooling. The book goes through what is wrong with public school, how it is an entrenched institution within itself, and what the remedies are in it, if anything. Although the cover looks like it is a cheaply written and produced book, it is anything but. The information in it is invaluable and absolutely worth the read. I believe the book would be an excellent complement to anything that John Gatto has written on the same subject of the incompatencies of the public schooling system and how it is essentially a make-work project for millions with very poor results.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-30 00:00:00 Tom Aste This is a collection of articles/essays by supporters of school choice programs around the world. Most of the articles take a critical look at the "choice" programs in countries where they exist and discuss what separates them from true free education markets. With the exception of the article on Chile's system, there was a widespread lack of school performance data cited, which made the essays somewhat less than impactful. This book provides interesting background information on the education policies in a handful of countries (Sweden, New Zealand, Chile...), but the lasting impression that the book leaves is that America can learn very little from school choice programs in other countries because none of them go nearly far enough. The final article by John Merrifield was the most interesting of the collection.