Education Policy Books for 2020
Here are my additions to the flurry of December reading lists as the two best published books in 2020 on the topic of education policy. The first is School House Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy by Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. Since I teach courses on the history of education and school law and policy, this book was particularly interesting to me. Black adeptly traces the current challenges in public education to their historical roots from the Early National Period through Reconstruction. He makes a very compelling case that many of these threats are direct challenges to democracy overall. The second book, A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door , is by Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire, the hosts of the popular policy podcast Have You Heard . Schneider and Berkshire address the growing movement toward privatization. One of the best sections of the book focuses on challenges to tea...