2024 the best of enemies analysis review

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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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Explore the works of Thomas Sowell
In this instant New York Times bestseller, renowned economist Thomas Sowell demolishes the myths that underpin the social justice movement Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light. Economic Facts and Fallacies exposes some of the most popular fallacies about economic issues-and does so in a lively manner and without requiring any prior knowledge of economics by the reader. Discrimination and Disparities gathers a wide array of empirical evidence to challenge the idea that different economic outcomes can be explained by any one factor, be it discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks. Race and Culture shows that cultural capital has far more impact than politics, prejudice, or genetics on the social and economic fates of minorities, nations, and civilization.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; First Edition (June 30, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541675134
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541675131
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1 x 9.5 inches
Reviewer: Frank G. Splitt
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Great Book on a Provocative Subject
Review: 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 EndingFor 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.

Reviewer: Girl Nerd
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Eye opening examination of Charter Schools
Review: A very good review of why charter schools make sense. Sowell acknowledges the limitations of his data but he did a masterful job with what he was able to obtain. Another good reason to move toward a voucher system to allow parents to search out these alternatives for educating their children.

Reviewer: Mrs Rancher
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very informative
Review: Bought as a gift. Rave reviews from the recipient.

Reviewer: Reader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Extraordinary analysis of charter schools, with detailed research supporting the conclusions
Review: Thomas Sowell is the most-read economist in the U.S., with more than 40 books published (~30 available on Kindle alone) and thousands of short essays and columns. This book was released on his 90th birthday. It is like all of his publications: clearly written and thoroughly researched. The book compares charter schools and public schools, but in a way that is more scientific than nearly every other such analysis. He and his staff compiled achievement data in detail for charter schools in New York that were housed in the same building as a public school covering the same grades and with similar enrollment demographics. The results for English and Mathematics in the standard New York State test are compared in each case for the two schools grade-by-grade.There are a lot of data (the last half of the book is an appendix with all of the data), but this enables the reader to judge how valid the analysis and conclusions of Dr Sowell are. The ~45 page chapter 2 uses some of these data to show how the analysis is done and how one can form legitimate conclusions from the data and analysis. You do not need to read all of the pages with the data from the official New York State test results to understand what the author is explaining in the other chapters.Dr Sowell is well know for being an economist who places valid data first and provides analysis based only on such data. His books provide the best explanations for many cultural factors that grow out of economic data. "Conquests and Cultures", "Discrimination and Disparities", "Race and Culture: A World View" are examples of his solid research and fully scientific approach to the issues. This new book is another outstanding example!

Reviewer: Bob Garey
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book about a very important issue.
Review: As always, Thomas Sowell explains with great clarity. The teachers' unions and the complicit public education establishment will do almost anything to prevent competition and keep its paying members employed for life. They insist that charter schools take away critically needed money from public schools (but charter schools actually are public schools), and that charter schools deliver no better and often worse results than traditional public schools. Don't believe me? Ask a traditional public school teacher about charter schools (the competition) and you'll get a very negative description of them. Think that description is correct? Read this book and learn why it's not. It's true, not all charter schools deliver superior results. But if they don't, they can and will go out of business. Charter schools are the only affordable alternative to failing traditional public schools (that will never be closed) in many predominantly minority neighborhoods of cities. This is an important issue to be knowledgeable about whether your own children are in school or are grown, as mine are. The book is not very long, The Kindle version has 268 pages, but the second half of the book is appendixes - data, endnotes, index, etc. This book is worth reading.

Reviewer: Tim B.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: 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.

Reviewer: Suz
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A must read for every educator, leader, parent or anyone who values the next generation and cares about tomorrow. Read this

Reviewer: briliantin
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: 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.

Reviewer: Patrick
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: 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.

Reviewer: Jeff Brown
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: 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.