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CHOICE Review

Librarians seeking an unorthodox, provocative, and highly critical response to reform movement proposals of the early 1980s (cf. Ernest L. Boyer, High School, CH, Jan '84) must add this text to their collections. Lieberman, who has written extensively in the field of labor and education (e.g., The Future of Public Education, 1960), offers a stinging rebuttal to reformers, whom he accuses of seeking to retain the status quo in the governance structure of the public schools while conveniently ignoring such obstacles to reform as teacher unions, tenure laws, the role of higher education, the failure of leadership, and education's immunity from marketplace forces. Several of public education's most sacred cows are questioned and rejected: tenure that protects too many incompetent teachers in order to avoid unfair treatment to competent ones; school governance that is dominated by a political approach and ignores educational needs or market alternatives; and schools that waste resources and lose respect when they attempt to solve problems (drugs, sexual activity, etc.) beyond their influence. In place of reform strategies requiring more spending on teacher salaries, the author advocates tuition tax credits/vouchers and the privatization of education through private profit-making or entrepreneurial schools. This is a well-written text that is fully documented with notes, appendixes, and an index. It compares favorably with quality works (cf. John N. Mangieri, ed., Excellence in Education, 1985) seeking to address the deficiencies confronting American education today. Highly recommended for the general reading public and undergraduate students.-F.X. Russo, University of Rhode Island