by Joe Williams
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Product Description
Journalist Joe Williams shows how parents can use consumer power to put children first, shining light on the special interests controlling our schools, where politics and pork infuse everything and our children's education is compromised, . He argues that increased accountability and choice are necessary, and shows how the people can take back the education system, enhancing responsibility inherent in democracy. The solution is a new brand of hardball politics that demands competence from school leaders and shifts the power away from bureaucrats and union leaders to the people who have a the greatest reason to put kids first: concerned parents. With practical steps and uplifting examples of success, this is a manifesto to action.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Cuts to the heart of the education debate, 2008-01-14
This is another book on why our public schools stink. Unlike most other such books, Williams does not care about curriculum, class-size, academic standards or the other stand-bys of the education reform movement. What Williams cares about is power. Our schools stink, not because their curriculum is bad, classes are too big or what-not, says Williams. Our schools stink, because all power in them is held by adults who put their own self-interest ahead of the kids. Williams tries to be even-handed about this. He discusses a number of adult groups that put themselves ahead of the kids, such as vendors. In the end, however, he is really just talking about the teachers union. The teachers union is an extremely powerful organization. Frankly, it is one of the most powerful groups within the Democratic Party, on a national level, so its political power is big league. Within the arena of education, on the local and state level, the teachers union is Godzilla; its level of power simply dwarves everyone else in the room.
Our schools will not be better, argues Williams, until parents have power in them. Parents will not have any power until they can control who gets the money for educating their kids. Williams is thus an enthusiastic supporter of school choice of all types.
What makes this book stand-out is its simplicity, bluntness and factual specificity. Williams is an education reporter, most of whose experience was in Milwaukee and New York City. He backs what he says with very specific horror stories. He writes in a way that makes the issues simple and easy to understand.
He also is very sensitive to how this issue cuts across the usual political lines. School choice, of course, is generally seen as a right-wing issue. Williams describes how it succeeded in Milwaukee only by creating a coalition of angry, black, poor parents -- often very far to the Left in their thinking -- united with business and right-wing types.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Truth to Power, 2007-09-23
Trying to find how school districts work is difficult. Transparency is hard to come by and this is deliberately so. Joe Williams breaks down the wall of obfuscation, the lies, and tells it like it is. My only regret is that he does not site more examples of the corruption that goes on in building new schools.
Los Angeles Unified School District is in the midst of a $19 billion school construction project - the largest in U.S. History. Precious little has been written about this monumental and historical occurence. I fear that the Fourth Estate is not up to the task of protecting the public. What editor would allow a reporter to spend months researching the byzantine passages of public construction bids, self-dealing, and the intracacies of change orders? It would win a Pulitzer if done right, but the economics of the newspaper business make it a remote possibility. Many reporters have to produce three to four stories a week! How can they dive into the five hundred layers of confusion in two days and write a credible story? Even if they spent three months, they would barely tap the surface.
That's why Joe Williams book is so important. It is an amazing start.
I just bought 12 copies of this book for my parent leaders.
24 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
A deserved kick in the shins to teachers unions, 2005-10-28
Teachers unions, as most informed citizens know, have done more to damage schools in the last 50 years than any other entity. These groups raely if ever put kids first, instead installing a system where it is next to impossible to fire teachers while convincing vast chunks of the general public that hard luck teachers are somehow underpaid (ha!). Bravo to this illuminating work!
15 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
 Just another objective journalist?, 2005-10-28
While I applaud Williams' title, I am amazed at the amount of politics and greed behind the author. With a special thanks to Fred M. Hess in the intro, and a plug from Mr. Hess on the back cover, I wonder how Williams gets past all of Hess's politics? The book was obviously supported by the neoconservative/neoliberal Right, something most readers won't ever know. Perhaps this book belongs under propaganda rather than education...Not that there's a difference under this administration, given the million dollars spent on convincing African Americans to buy into NCLB. (Google Ketchum, Armstrong Williams, and GAO)
Williams is just another shrill for the far Right, arguing that business leaders need to do more to save our failing schools...As if they haven't already done enough! Business leaders do not, have not, and will never put children first...they put buisness first. It's corporate leaders, and media lap-dogs like Williams, who are responsible for the current disaster most call NCLB, a disaster pushing good teachers and good students out of good schools. Standards and accountability! Ha. Let's get some into the media and White House first...perhaps they'll trickle down...
Until we recognize that we should be living in a democracy, a social system that requires critical and engaged citizens, we can expect more of the same from the Anti-School movement: our schools are failing, our schools are failing, our schools are failing, and the only way to save them is by turning children into hyper productive worksheet completers. Yes, capable of working 55 hour weeks sans complaint but incapable of challenging the whys and hows of global democracy. Likely to consume what you tell them to consume but unlikely to ask why we consume so much...Is that the future we really want?
I can't believe this book came from an academic press.
35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
GREAT book!, 2005-10-01
I just finished reading Williams's book and HIGHLY recommend it. In it, he exposes in great detail the many outrageous ways that our public school system is controlled by adults and run for their benefit, rather than the children. It's infuriating, yet also hopeful, as he shows how Milwaukee's parents were able to win enormous changes, and outlines a guidebook for parents and activists everywhere.
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