The Changing Politics of Education: Privatization and the Dispossessed Lives Left Behind

The authors persuasively argue that the present cascade of reforms to public education is a consequence of a larger intention to shrink government. The startling result is that more of public education assets and resources are moving to the private sector and to the prison industrial complex. Drawing on various forms of evidence structural, economic, narrative, and youth-generated participatory research the authors reveal new structures and circuits of dispossession and privilege that amount to a clear failure of present policy.

Reviews

“This is one of those very rare books on public education and social dispossession that bursts the bounds of it brilliant scholarship and explodes into a soaring call for action. Fine and Fabricant carefully dissect the ideological attack upon the public schools, the selling off of public services to the private sector, the marginalization of professional teachers, and the relegation of low-income students to the status of expendables. But the genius of this book lies in its recognition that disinvestment in the public schools and their replacement by selective boutique institutions are serving the purpose for which they were intended: mightily expanding the inequalities of wealth, darkening the futures of the dispossessed, and cannibalizing what remains of democratic spirit in a corporate society. The book ends with strong proposals — “direct action” and “the reinvention of the work of unions,” among other bold suggestions that are seldom heard from academic authors in this era of retrenchment. The book has an electrifying tone. It creates a sense of urgency. I’m profoundly grateful to the authors.”

–Jonathan Kozol, Writer, Educator, and Activist

“A practical and accessible book that reflects the many complex issues in social services. … The authors constructively and responsibly offer concrete suggestions for change. … Much to offer service workers who want to make meaningful and long-term changes.”

–Journal of Progressive Human Services

“A timely book which addresses significant issues for the field of social welfare and, by implication, social work education as well. … Has considerable utility as a supplemental text in courses on social welfare policy, the history and philosophy of social welfare.”

–Journal of Teaching in Social Work

“The authors explore the interplay between the implementation of cost-containment policies and the changing structure and content of social service practice, within the larger dynamics of the political economy.”

–Reference & Research Book News

Social Service Review Book Review

Additionally reviewed in New Politics.