When education activists in New York, Chicago, and other urban school districts in the 1980s began the small-schools movement, they envisioned a new kind of public school system that was fair and equitable and that encouraged new relationships between teachers and students. When that movement for school reform ran head-on into the neo-conservative takeover of the Department of Education and its No Child Left Behind strategy for school change, a new model of federal power bent on the erosion of public space and the privatization of public schooling emerged. Michael and Susan Klonsky, educators who were among the early leaders of the small-schools movement, tell the story of how a once-promising model of creating new small and charter schools has been used by the neocons to reproduce many of the old inequities. Small Schools is the engaging story of what happens when the small-schools movement meets the Ownership Society.
Author(s): Michael Klonsky
Edition: 1
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 224
BOOK COVER......Page 1
TITLE......Page 4
COPYRIGHT......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
SERIES EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION......Page 7
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 10
INTRODUCTION TWO TRAINS RUNNING......Page 12
CHAPTER 1: THE SMALL-SCHOOLS MOVEMENT MEETS THE OWNERSHIP SOCIETY......Page 26
CHAPTER 2: THE OWNERSHIP SOCIETY —NOT JUST A BUMPER STICKER......Page 55
CHAPTER 3: CHARTERING PRIVATE MANAGEMENT......Page 97
CHAPTER 4: THE TWO FACES OF PHILANTHROPY: SMALL SCHOOLS ALONG THE FAULT LINES OF WEALTH AND CLASS......Page 136
CHAPTER 5: THINK TANKS: THE BRAINS OF THE
OWNERSHIP SOCIETY......Page 160
CHAPTER 6: ALTERNATIVES TO TOP-DOWN REFORM......Page 174
NOTES......Page 192
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 204
INDEX......Page 212
