Schools for Sale

School Administrator, April, 1999 by Joseph W. Rudnicki

In Schools for Sale, Ernest R. House, a professor of education at University of Colorado, reviews federal education policy over the last 20 years to illustrate the missed opportunities for positive change.

House elucidates the chasm between economic and education assumptions. He contends that if educators are brought into policy discussions at the federal level, they often are seen merely as defensive critics.

Decision makers are unaware of how schools function so that their policy proposals on economic matters, which he creates as the parallel reference of thought, are better founded than those on education. He believes the educational policy tables would turn favorably if policies were derived from innovators and educators operating as full partners.

During the Reagan administration's emphasis on free enterprise, he says education was scapegoated for socially disruptive policy and the creation of greater economic inequality among U.S. citizens. President Clinton's policies, he adds, are doomed because of their reliance on state-level reform. The current administration has failed to provide training opportunities to resolve the question: How do we deliver service differently?

House's thoughtful book succinctly reviews the nation s policy proposals in light of expectations of improved general economic development.

(Schools for Sale: Why Free Market Policies Won't Improve America's Schools and What Will, by Ernest R. House, Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Ave., New York, N.Y., 10027, 1998,158 pp. with index, $19.95 softcover)