In Schools for Sale, author Ernest House debunks the myth that economic productivity should shape educational policy and practice. House conclusively illustrates that the attempts by the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations to reshape the school to make "productive workers" ignore how schools work and how students learn, and in the end are doomed to failure. Politically driven proposals for vouchers and privatization and increased calls for accountability...

In this book Terry Moe takes a penetrating look at the school voucher movement and its growing challenge to the traditional system of American education. Schools, vouchers, and the American public examines the democratic foundations of the voucher issue, what they mean for the kinds of political coalitions that are likely to form and the kinds of proposals that are likely to win-and what all this implies for the role that vouchers will play in the...

This volume brings together the most current empirical research on two important innovations reshaping American education today -- voucher programs and charter schools. Contributors include many of the foremost analysts in education policy. Of specific significance is cutting-edge research that evaluates the impact of vouchers on academic performance in the New York City, Washington, D.C., and Dayton, Ohio, school systems. The volume also looks beyond...