Schooling Alone is a look at the history of public education and the current state of the efforts to privatize our public schools. This work looks at who is really choosing and what we, as members of a democratic republic, are losing as privatization of our publicly funded institutions moves forward. There is a difference between a capitalist economic theory and the values of a democratic republic. This work asks the reader to consider what our values regarding public education should be.
Preface Chapter 1: Chartering Schools Chapter 2: An Entitlement Mentality Students as Business Assets Chapter 3: Something Happened Selling the Charter School Concept Chapter 4: De-professionalizing American Public Education Repealing Labor Laws Take Care of Business Chapter 5: What about the Sermon on the Mount? Chapter 6: The Good Old Days Chapter 7: Public or Private Chapter 8: A Contracted Service Chapter 9: "All Politics is Local" Chapter 10: Deregulating a Public Good Chapter 11: The Myth of Self-Correcting Free Markets Chapter 12: Financial "Tells" Comparing Market Sectors' Debt Chapter 13: Espoused Theories vs Theories in Use Consumer Choice without Consumer Responsibility for that Choice Chapter 14: Retirement Heist Chapter 15: Investing in the General Welfare Privatization Creep Chapter 16: Market Meltdown The Issue with Long Term Leases with a Related Party Chapter 17: Controlling the Nation's Educational Agenda Chapter 18: The Economics of School Choice Chapter 19: False Analogies Chapter 20: Capitalism and Democracy An Economic versus a Political Theory of Action Historical Context Personal Financial Responsibility is an American Value The "Greatest Generation" got it Right Scientific Management Chapter 21: A Corporate Culture A Financial House of Cards Real Estate Acquisition Companies Exacerbating the Debt Problem Long Term Leasing Commitments with Related Parties Underwater Real Estate Holdings Overleveraged Long Term Debt and Commitments Chapter 22: Is this Any Way to Run a Business? Double Standards for Fiscal Accountability There are No Fail Safes Built into the Model Defining Unsustainable Losses in a Growing "Free Market" Theoretical Safeguard Threatened Educational Capital Sources Backpacks full of Debt guaranteed by Students' Backpacks full of Cash Chapter 23: Lost Political Capital Chapter 24: The Role of the Federal Government in Public Education Precedents for Federal Involvement in Education Origins of the Federal, State, and Local Control Debates Chapter 25: The Goals of an American Public Education Communities Matter Celebrate all of our Successes Chapter 26: Cashing In - Greed is "Good" The Profit Motive: A Case in Point The Theory of the Firm New Rules Chapter 27: An Educational Vision versus an Economic Theory of Action Chapter 28: Philosophical Dissonance The Fight for Equalized Opportunity Funding Chapter 29: Enough Already
