The Death of Public School - by Cara Fitzpatrick (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Conservatives have succeeded in establishing their vision of education in America, one in which government funds can be used to pay for both public and private schools. As a result, the very meaning of public education in the United States has shifted away from the idea of a universal good. To understand how we got here, The Death of Public School argues, we must look back at the turbulent history of school choice. The Death of Public School tells the rich and surprising story about the people, unusual political alliances, and philanthropic interests that have fueled the rise of the school choice movement over the last 70 years. Drawing on two decades of experience as an education reporter, Fitzpatrick traces the origins of school choice in the modern era from Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who helped lead a revival of conservatism in the 20th century, to the present day, in which conservatives are propelling the spread of choice options, such as charter schools, school vouchers, and tax-credit scholarships. Fitzpatrick paints rich portraits of people from various political and cultural backgrounds-from free-market conservatives to Catholic priests to white segregationists in the South to Black parents in urban school systems-who, in pursuit of their vision of education, linked arms with individuals across the aisle"--

Book Synopsis

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist shows how conservatives have pushed for a revolution in public education--one that threatens the existence of the traditional public school

America has relied on public schools for 150 years, but the system is increasingly under attack. With declining enrollment and diminished trust in public education, policies that steer tax dollars into private schools have grown rapidly. To understand how we got here, The Death of Public School argues, we must look back at the turbulent history of school choice.    
  
Cara Fitzpatrick uncovers the long journey of school choice, a story full of fascinating people and strange political alliances. She shows how school choice evolved from a segregationist tool in the South in the 1950s, to a policy embraced by advocates for educational equity in the North, to a conservative strategy for securing government funds for private schools in the twenty-first century. As a result, education is poised to become a private commodity rather than a universal good.  

The Death of Public School presents the compelling history of the fiercest battle in the history of American education--one that already has changed the future of public schooling.

Review Quotes

"An extraordinary achievement...thoroughly researched."--C-SPAN

"Opens with a superb survey of the political, cultural, legal and natural forces undermining public trust in our nation's schools... The book is a timely history of a movement that could reshape American education and set off explosive policy debates for many years."--New York Times

Best Summer Book of 2023--Financial Times

"A great addition to education and behavioral sciences collections." --Library Journal

"The Death of Public School manages to provide grounding context to the labyrinthine journey of the school-choice movement, profiling both the well-known figures and the less familiar activists, lawyers, educators, and parents on both sides who have shaped this war. In Fitzpatrick's capable hands, a sequel would certainly be much appreciated."
--Booklist

"A cohesive study of America's path to increasingly politicized--and privatized--education."--Kirkus

"Meticulously drawn from years of archival research, this is a lucid and thorough study of a hot-button issue."--Publishers Weekly

"The Death of Public School is history at its best, unfurling a remarkable, troubling tale. In chilling detail, Cara Fitzpatrick lays out how in plain sight the conservatives have worked to dismantle public education. In this recounting, Fitzpatrick has issued a clarion call, to renew our public commitment to providing an equitable and rigorous schooling for all."--Alex Kotlowitz, author of An American Summer

"Cara Fitzpatrick has written a remarkable book on the decades long battle over school choice. Deeply researched and beautifully written, this is a story of the calculating lawmakers and surprising political alliances who have redefined public education with profound implications for families, communities, and the nation. This is a must-read book for anyone who cares about the future of education in America."--Matthew F. Delmont, Dartmouth College and author of Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad

"Cara Fitzpatrick has produced a crucial political history of the movement that, often quietly, has threatened the public nature of America's education system. The Death of Public School is timely, carefully researched, and critically important."--Dana Goldstein, author of The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession

About the Author

Cara Fitzpatrick is an editor at Chalkbeat. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2016 for a series about school segregation. She was a New Arizona fellow in 2019 at New America and a Spencer fellow at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 2018. Fitzpatrick lives in New York City with her husband and children.