Abstract
In The Death of Public School, Cara Fitzpatrick traces the history of America’s move to privatize its education system. In 23 chapters, she follows the history of this movement from its beginnings as a white supremacist attempt to keep schools segregated, to its development into a bipartisan effort employing a civil rights narrative. Fitzpatrick provides case studies of how privatization efforts played out in places like Cleveland, Ohio, Florida, and New Orleans, and the author shows how conservatives appropriated a civil rights narrative to pursue their own aims for privatization in the 21st century. While others have outlined and explained the multiple motivations behind the school privatization movement, the detail with which Fitzpatrick tells this history is noteworthy, and this work is important as it forces the reader to acknowledge the complicated history behind this movement. Fitzpatrick’s analysis is wanting in a critical framework for understanding the nuanced intersections of race, class, and politics that influence this history, but she opens a window to understanding how powerful conservative forces have successfully gained control of civil rights narratives that support the school privatization movement today.
Recommended Citation
Frenkiewich, J.
(2024).
Conservatives’ Use of a Civil Rights Narrative Helped Them Secure Control of American Education Policy. A Book Review of The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America.
Democracy and Education,
32
(1), Article 9.
Available at:
https://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol32/iss1/9