R&L Education
Pages: 232
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-8108-3956-4 • Paperback • March 2001 • $41.00 • (£32.00)
978-1-4617-0057-9 • eBook • March 2001 • $39.00 • (£30.00)
John Merrifield is a member of the Economics Faculty at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and a Senior Research Associate at the Education Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Elements of a Competitive Education Industry
Chapter 3 Experiments
Chapter 4 Real Evidence About Competition
Chapter 5 Liberal/Conservative Role Reversal
Chapter 6 Fallacies About School Choice
Chapter 7 Government Regulation Issues
Chapter 8 The Neglect of Costs
Chapter 9 Fund Children or Institutions?
Chapter 10 Equity and Equality
Chapter 11 Diversity Issues
Chapter 12 Strategic and Tactical Fallacies
Chapter 13 Private Voucher Initiatives
Chapter 14 Teachers
Chapter 15 Outlook and Political Strategy
Passionate and persuasive. Merrifield pulls no punches in his criticism of alternate approaches. This important book is bound to be controversial.
— Dr. Milton Friedman, 1976 Nobel Laureate
...a seminal contribution to explaining why the current school choice wars cannot change our educational system.
— Seymour Sarason, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology at Yale University, and author of Political Leadership and Educational Failure
In presenting the issues of a truly competitive education industry, he is as much a teacher as a researcher. No matter what camp of education reform you belong to, you can learn a great deal from The School Choice Wars.
— John Pisciotta, senior fellow, Texas Public Policy Foundation and associate professor of Economics, Baylor University
...my early favorite for Best School Reform Book of 2001. Even school reformers committed to an incrementalist approach will benefit from Merrifield's instructions on the proper use of rhetoric and the importance of communicating the goal of creating a true competitive education industry.
— Joseph L. Bast, author of We Can Rescue Our Children and Rebuilding America's Schools, founding publisher of School Reform News and president of
The School Choice Wars is essential reading in the discussions of education reform.... If his analysis is widely read, it will transform the debate over school choice in the United States, to a debate over a competitive education industry.
— Dr. Myron Lieberman, chairman, Education Policy Institute
...a sharp, punchy, action-oriented book. The author...appears to have read — and cited — every article and study on school choice ever written.
— Martin Morse Wooster; The Washington Times
The book, citing up-to-date research, would be a valuable resource to administrators regardless of where they stand on the issue of school choice.
— School Administrator