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Charter Schools and Their Enemies Kindle Edition

by Thomas Sowell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Winner of the 2021 Hayek Book Prize

A leading conservative intellectual defends charter schools against the teachers' unions, politicians, and liberal educators who threaten to dismantle their success.

The black-white educational achievement gap -- so much discussed for so many years -- has already been closed by black students attending New York City's charter schools. This might be expected to be welcome news. But it has been very unwelcome news in traditional public schools whose students are transferring to charter schools. A backlash against charter schools has been led by teachers unions, politicians and others -- not only in New York but across the country. If those attacks succeed, the biggest losers will be minority youngsters for whom a quality education is their biggest chance for a better life.

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July 14, 2020
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"A methodologically rigorous, closely argued, data-driven case for charter schools...Thomas Sowell is a national treasure in a nation that does not entirely deserve him."―National Review --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and the author of A Personal Odyssey, The Vision of the Anointed, Ethnic America, and several other books. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, and Fortune and are syndicated in 150 newspapers. He lives in Stanford, California.

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08421GP4S
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books (July 14, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 14, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 30801 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B091CPB8X1

Best Sellers Rank: #379,701 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #54 in Macroeconomics (Kindle Store)
- #57 in Educational Law & Legislation Law
- #83 in Education Policy

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Leib Gershon Mitchell

A Brilliant Book

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2023

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This is a brilliant book that could be subtitled so many other things:

1. Why black people need to look someplace other than the government for salvation: a very specific case study of blacks getting the short end of the stick interacting with the government.

2. Neither private nor public sector unions are friends to black people: The special case of damages wrought by one very large public sector union.(NEA)

3. Governments don't practice what they preach: The story of how Current New York Mayor with (half) black children (Bill deBlasio) picked teachers' unions over the interests of many other children that look just like his. ("If I had a son that I would send the public school, he would look just like yours!")

4. Integration is not the panacea that everybody assumes it is, and oftentimes it makes the situation worse. (There have been all black schools that have outperformed wealthier all white schools for a very long time. Even these days.)

5. Actions speak much louder than words: beware that left-wing white people who use a bunch of saccharine words to virtue-signal/ woo black voters actually do WAY more damage by their actions.
*******
This book is different (in some ways) to all of Thomas Sowell's other books that I have read (and I've read around 25 of his books, give or take).

Mostly, they have consisted of:

1. Repackaging established ideas in a way that Everyman can understand them. (Basic-Applied Economics/ Knowledge and Decisions, etc.)

2. History/Historical overviews ("Cultures" Trilogy; "Black Rédñeçks"....; "On Classical Economics")

3. Memoirs (A Man of Letters; A Personal Odyssey)

4. Social Policy (Affirmative Action; Inside American Education, etc.)

5. Epistemology (Conflict of Visions; The Vision of the Anointed)

There is significant overlap between this book and the others. (For instance, he cites Theodore Dalrymple--again-- as a witness to the pathologies that lower class white English have that are analagous to the ones that black in America have. And, it seems like significant sections of "Discrimination and Disparities" were recycled for this.)

There is also a lot recycled from "Black Education: Tragedies and Myths."
What does this book do that seems different?

He actually reanalyzes existing data in order to test a hypothesis. (Chapter 1 is devoted to presenting the experimental design.)
*******
The book has an interesting set up.
°°28 pages of notes (215-248)
°°72 pages of appendices (140-212)
°°132 pages of prose--of which 26 pages are tables that were dealt with in the text.
°°106 pages of actual prose.

The sample set of 5 schools networks were: KIPP Charter; Success Academy; Explorer Schools; Uncommon Schools; Achievement First.

And these networks were chosen by the principle that: they wanted the school networks that had classes in the largest number of buildings co-housed with traditional public schools. (This was done to make it so that the students who were being put in the charter schools were comparable to those in the public schools.)
*******

I have to say this since this book only takes a 3~4 hours to read, I would recommend it because that is such a small amount of time to use.
There are also lots of second-order questions that the reader comes up with as a result of this, and in that way the book is appropriately stimulating:
1. If the government has no consistent way to educate people the right way, isn't it better that maybe they just do less of it? 40% of students in the United Kingdom finish school at 16 years old.

2. There are many more black youngsters of school-age than there are public school timeservers (aka: teachers)--but look how a special interest group with professional lobbyists and intense focus can come out on top.

3. A lot of critics will argue that the students at the charter schools are self-selected. And that brings up the question as to why there could not be some type of selection in US schools? (I happen to know that at least a third of students in the People's republic of China do not move from middle school to high school. And so the students that are allowed to continue the high school are all at the same level.)

4. What are some of the most egregious problems with public sector unions? Is this the only one/the worst one? (I'm sure that it's not the only one, but I believe that it is undoubtedly the worst. Especially if you count up all the spillover effects.)

Just how ugly can union politics get?

5. In some ways, this is a public policy book. The question is how to get the incentives right to produce good students. (Of course, if every single public school in the United States closed tomorrow... We would still have the problem of what to do with the lesser students. Also, there would be no more self-selection for people who wanted a good education for their kids.)
In that way, high performing charter schools and low performing public schools are codependent.

6. What is a school?

The answer seems to depend very much on who is looking.

If you ask public school teachers, they might tell you that it is something like: a job creation engine for courtiers and timeservers/monopoly for educational bureaucracies/a captive audience for indoctrinators.

If you ask some parents, they might tell you that it is a tool for the education of children.
*******

As before: in some ways this book seems like a lot of rehash of themes that Sowell has developed/exposited before.

But to be honest, since these mistakes have been made over many decades repeatedly, what else can an author do except restate the obvious? And maybe hope that some of it will get through?

The focus on this book is charter schools, but parochial schools (i.e, Catholic/Muslim) could serve the same purpose and their position is not quite as fragile as that of Charter schools.

Verdict: This book I recommend at the new price for those who've only read a couple of Sowell's books. For people who have read dozens of his books (like the present writer) it's probably worth the second hand price.

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Frank G. Splitt

A Great Book on a Provocative Subject

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2020

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The publication of Charter Schools and Their Enemies comes at a time when charter schools are under intense scrutiny—with even their right to exist in question. Sowell consistently reminds readers of what’s at stake, to wit: the education of children … children whose futures hang in the balance. To counter adversaries of charter schools he asks and re-asks a penetrating question: “How, specifically, is this going to make the education of children better?”

Sowell writes with clarity and moral authority. He quickly dispels the notion that race and social justice issues such as housing, immigration, policing, and incarceration, are holding back children of color rather than second-rate schools in which they attend. To this end, he uses Dunbar High School, in Washington, D.C. as proof of concept. From 1870 to 1955, the school produced the first black federal judge, the first black general, the first black cabinet member, and America’s first three black women PhDs—all of it in the years before Brown v. Board of Education.

His tight focus on New York City charters that occupy classrooms in public-school facilities provides a solid basis for a comparative analysis. Sowell limits his comparisons to well-established networks, or charter management organizations with schools in five or more buildings. These are the KIPP, Success Academy, Explore Schools, Uncommon Schools, and Achievement First, with Explore is the negative outlier. The study demonstrates significantly better educational outcomes at the charters relative to public-school classes at the same facility. In the aggregate, the charter school students achieve proficiency in English language arts at a rate five times better than students in competing public schools in the same buildings. In math, the proficiency advantage swells to nearly seven to one. Seventy-two pages of tables are provided for the readers to make their own comparisons.

This educational success is most likely attributable not only to the value placed on education by the student’s sponsor (parent or guardian) for the charter school’s lottery, but also to the tight discipline and good student behavior characteristic of charter-school classrooms. Sowell notes: “The most fundamental fact about traditional public schools is that compulsory attendance laws guarantee that children of all sorts of dispositions and capabilities must attend. To assume that they all want to be there, and all are striving to achieve success there, is to ignore the most blatant realities.”

America’s charter schools have yet to produce a Dunbar High. It likely the charters never will unless the movement can successfully address threats from teachers unions, politicians, and regulators. Sowell describes these many and varied threats in detail. A particularly vicious threat are attempts to make the charter schools look more like the traditional schools, as for example by requiring the charters to adhere to less stringent rules and regulations re: student behavior. In many cases, families are generally seeking out charters because of better discipline.
.
Sowell is dismissive of the charge that charters are “segregated” schools. They are “schools in predominantly minority communities, where minority parents/guardians, who value education and discipline, seek out charters for their children where they will be educated along with other minority students,” Sowell writes. “The successful track record of these charter schools, and the contrasting educational futility of racial ‘integration’ crusades, both demonstrate that white classmates are neither necessary nor sufficient for non-white students to achieve educational success.”

Sowell also counters the idea a that America’s educational failures are due to racism—not school culture or competence, or the ability to nurture student initiative—or that black excellence is not possible without inclusion.

This is a well written account of the significant educational achievements garnered by the New York City charters considered by Sowell, as well the threats these schools face. As Diane Ravitch, education historian, author, and public-school advocate, reveals in her 2020 book, Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools, not all charter schools and charter management organizations are of the caliber considered by Sowell. As a matter of fact, political and other forms of corruption can and do abound. As Sowell recognizes, oversight of charters is a definite requirement, possibly by the courts.

As with Slaying Goliath, this is a must read book for parents, teachers, government officials, and other concerned citizens as well.
To obtain a balanced view of this provocative subject, I recommend that both books be read, see my appended Amazon review of
Ravitch's book.

As an almost 90-year-old product of both public and private schools, I can see the advantages and disadvantages inherent in both educational venues. In the end, the choice of a school depends on prevailing circumstances and should be subject to due diligence
-----------------------
An Educational Whodunit with a Happy Ending

For anyone still wondering about what happened to the highly touted education reform programs, such as Common Core, Race to the Top, and Value Added Measures, wonder no more. Diane Ravitch puts on her education historian hat once again—telling a page-turning story.

It’s a whodunit that begins by naming the villains (Goliaths), the millionaires and billionaires who targeted America's public schools—labeling these schools as poorly managed havens for bad teachers who are protected by their powerful unions.

The villains aimed to replace public schools with charter schools and/or voucher programs while ferreting out so-called bad teachers on the basis of student test scores. For some, public schools presented a rich marketing opportunity ripe for the taking. And take they did with the cooperation of federal, state, and local governments. At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Education under the administrations of President's George W. Bush, Barack H. Obama, and Donald J. Trump have all been deeply complicit to varying degrees.

The heroes (Davids) in the story are the teachers, students, administrators, and parents who formed the ill-funded, passionate resistance to the privatization and corporatization of America's public school system. It was this passionate resistance that slayed Goliath.

I would also count Diane Ravitch among these heroes. She sees public education as a basic public responsibility—warning Americans not to be persuaded by a false crisis narrative to privatize it while urging parents, educators, and other concerned citizens to join together to strengthen our public schools and preserve them for future generations.

In this book, Ravitch has exposed the rampant corruption involved with the villain’s takeovers, the baseless notion of evaluating teacher via student test scores, as well as the damage done to communities, schools, students and teachers that will take years to heal, especially so while dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although this is not another book about education reform per se, one is left to wonder where American public education would be today if the Goliaths respected the sound principle of giving to meet needs instead of giving to impose their ideas and take control of K-12 education in America.
.
My thanks go to primary teachers Holly Rothstein Balk, Katianne Rothstein Olson, Chelsea Gabzdyl, and Margaret Zamzow Wenzelman, as well as high school teachers Margaret Mangan, (the late) Joseph Hafenscher and to retired Illinois State Board of Education staff member Michael Mangan, for their insights into the Common Core State Standards, Value Added Measures, and the impact of the standards and related over-the-top testing regimes on school administrators, teachers, and their students.

This is a must read book for parents, teachers, government officials, and other concerned citizens as well.

2 people found this helpful

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Tim B.

Charter Schools Fully Explained

Reviewed in Canada on August 6, 2020

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Thomas Sowell explains every aspect of charter schools in a way that educates the reader about what they are, their merits and why they are so opposed by vested interests in teacher's unions and government.

I had no idea that millions of students are on waiting lists and the opposition by Democratic mayors who are in bed with the unions so visceral and strong. The shame of it is that charter schools perform on a far higher plain, cost less, are disciplined and above all driven by success. It's no wonder that inner city minority families are so desperate to get their children out of crime ridden failed public schools and into quality charter schools where their children can, and do, succeed.

From everything I absorbed they should be the way of the future and I'd hope this becomes a major national political cause to make this happen.

Thomas Sowell is to be congratulated for shedding so much needed light on this important issue.

One person found this helpful

Suz

Must Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2021

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A must read for every educator, leader, parent or anyone who values the next generation and cares about tomorrow. Read this

briliantin

The book talks about the lobbying the public school system

Reviewed in Germany on August 3, 2020

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The book was ok. It really included a lot of statistics which I thought were somewhat redundant or could have been transfered to the appendix. I would have wished to read more about the secret of the charter schools per se or the people who attack the schools mentioned above. It's a must-read nevertheless.

2 people found this helpful

Patrick

Another factual, grounded and good read by Dr. Thomas Sowell

Reviewed in Canada on July 2, 2020

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A clear and concise take on the results and political hurdles charter schools have come to face, despite their overall success. Tons of sources and comparable data of both public schools and charter school proficiency, along with a good explanation of how accountability is defined differently by differing parties within the schooling system.

You can only hope more people will be aware of such blatant blockades by the bizarre politicos working against a system to best educate a new wave of children.

7 people found this helpful

Jeff Brown

Countering the false narratives

Reviewed in Canada on January 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

A clear and indisputable refutation of the false narratives regarding inner city schools as promulgated by their protagonists. If you've wondered why our inner city youth seem programmed for failure, why there is a lack of opportunity, and why more money cannot solve the problems, here are your answers. This is an important book, that the establishment would prefer burned.

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