What People Are Saying
“Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire offer a powerful analysis of the predatory, profit-seeking forces that threaten our nation’s public schools. As they show, the old ideas of the radical right are more dangerous than ever, and are advancing more rapidly than we realize. If you care about the future of our society, read this book.”
— Diane Ravitch, author of Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America's Public Schools.
“How did the once-fringe quest to turn public education into a profit-making industry get so close to wrecking our schools? Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire pull back the curtain on the right-wing ideologues, billionaire donors and for-profit entrepreneurs who have masked their true purposes well enough to ensnare many who should know better. Read this keenly argued and convincing book to understand that if we lose our public schools, we lose the ‘we’ of ‘We the people.’”
— Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: the Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.
“An excellent choice for teachers to understand the politics of their profession, and for people committed to supporting and improving public education.”
— Booklist
“Schneider and Berkshire make a persuasive case that public education is under serious threat. Parents, teachers, and progressive policy makers will learn much from this well-documented account.”
— Publishers Weekly
“A vigorous, well-informed broadside against the marketization of the education system in the U.S.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“This well researched, carefully argued, and alarming book supplements those by Diane Ravitch and Andrea Gabor.”
— Library Journal
“In this eminently readable book, the authors describe the ‘unmaking’ of public education and the players behind this effort. They explain how the attacks on public schools are part of a larger effort shrink government and in general what the public expects from the public sphere…Schneider and Berkshire demonstrate that attacking public education has also torn at the social fabric of America.”
— Wendy Lecker, Stamford Advocate
“Their insightful analysis and synthesis will tremendously contribute to the education and political science literature and beyond. This is a book for parents, teachers, and others who commit themselves to improving public education and care about the future of the American society.”
— DongMei Li, Teachers College Record
"Our public schools, imperfect as they are, remain the best opportunity we've got for a more just and equal society. Philadelphia was able to beat back almost two decades of privatization and austerity because parents, educators, and youth formed a united front. By taking on these wildly unpopular attempts to destroy public education, we build not just a stronger and more responsive school system but a better democracy. This book is an urgent guide for the battles to come."
— Helen Gym, member, Philadelphia City Council
“A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door is meticulously researched, illuminating, and timely, offering badly needed context for our contemporary debates about what public education is for and who it should serve. The forces looking to destroy public education have a recognizable strategy in their crusade to privatize and demolish; this is the playbook we need if we are going to join together and fight back.”
— Noliwe Rooks, Chair of Africana Studies, Brown University, and author of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education
“Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire are two essential chroniclers of the unrelenting attacks on public education. They lay out in detail the history, cast of characters, and motivation behind the assault on a cornerstone of America - free, open, and democratically governed public schools. Everyone who cares about our democracy should read this book.”
— Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers
“A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door charts the steady undermining of the notion of education as a public good to be supported by public money, which has only exacerbated the educational divide between the haves and have nots. Forces are prepared to finish off public education once and for good, using pandemic-driven shortage of resources as the ultimate rationale. Scary stuff.”
— John Warner, Chicago Tribune
“The great benefit of the book is that it connects hundreds of established dots into a flashing arrow: this is the end game, the crushing of once-healthy public schools, monetizing their resources and selling them off for parts. It accurately represents where we are, in the midst of a pandemic and constitutional crisis. The wolf is truly at the door… So—read this book, whether you’re a veteran educator or a kindergarten parent. It’s accurate and sharp, the best education book I’ve read this year.”
— Nancy Flanagan, Teacher in a Strange Land
“A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door is an essential read for anybody who wants to understand the school choice fight and what's going on in their own schools and in their own states. Definitely read it. It'll be the best couple of days you've spent.”
— Charles Siler, former external relations manager, lobbyist, Goldwater Institute.
“Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire’s A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School is not science fiction, but it could be the premise for a good film. The book asks us to imagine a future in which the growing movement of school privatizers in the United States totally have their way. Just as with good sci-fi, the authors make a compelling case that, based on our current trajectory, a nightmare future is closer than we think.
— Jon K. Shelton, Jacobin Magazine
“This book is critical reading for anyone hoping to understand the complex of forces joining to “disrupt” education, as well as understanding where they came from, how they got here, and why this moment in history is different from all those that came before.”
— Peter Greene, Forbes Magazine
“An education historian and an investigative journalist combine their considerable skills in this book to give us a clear-eyed, searing indictment of the privatizing and profit-seeking threats to our schools. Schneider and Berkshire cut through the rhetorical fog surrounding a host of free-market reforms and innovations—from vouchers to virtual learning—to expose a strategic and terribly dangerous undermining of public education.”