Review by Choice Review
Fabricant (Hunter College) and Fine (CUNY, Graduate Center) examine current US education reform within a broader political-economic context. The authors discuss the effects of the dismantling of public education, especially as related to moving its assets and resources to the private sector. Central to the book is research on poor and working-class youth, specifically those of color, in the school system. They are described as the dispossessed within the public school system. As such, they are denied engaging academic opportunities and critical resources in their communities, including those needed for libraries and schools. Addressing these problems is negatively affected by policy makers' assumption that the misfortune of the dispossessed is self-induced. To address problems in the educational system, the authors call for radically restructuring the basic functions of public education with a major emphasis on changing its welfare and impoverished state. Finally, democratic principles are upheld as key to mobilizing the power needed to reverse the momentum and agenda of current US education reform. This book is highly recommended to a wide audience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. J. C. Agnew-Tally formerly, Missouri State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
