As we inch closer and closer to the 2024 election, I am really excited to be back with you all for another installment of Voter Literacy, with Traci. Each month I am recommending books to you about topics that will be particularly relevant to the upcoming election locally and/or nationally.
This month I want to dig a bit into education. I think education has always been a battleground for politics, especially because it is a realm that is often relegated to women as part of the domestic sphere (or whatever sexist nonsense they say these days). Education feels particularly important in 2024 as we have seen an uptick in coordinated efforts to ban books in schools, alongside efforts to ban curricula that deal with race, and with the attacks on queer children, especially ones who are gender nonconforming.
Below is a list of new books that interrogate the state of politics in education. If you have an issue you’d like me to cover, submit your suggestions here.
School Moms: Parent Activism, Partisan Politics, and the Battle for Public Education by Laura Pappano
In School Moms, Laura Pappano digs into the work that white, conservative, moms (and parents more broadly) are doing across the country to limit what children can and can’t access in public schools. The majority of the book focuses on the movements started after masking was instituted due to COVID-19, think Moms for Liberty. Pappano covers a lot, from book bans to anti-trans legislation. She also talks about the teachers who have been fired because of these factions of activist parents. It is a great look at what the conservative right is doing, though it does overlook almost all other types of “school moms”.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal by Bettina L. Love
An incredibly well written book about the last 40 years of racism and criminalization of Black children in public schools in the US. Love starts with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, which targeted Black youths, and shows the decades of defunding, policing, and programs that repeatedly stripped Black students of access and opportunities. She also shows the white saviors who tried to step in and instead made a mess of things even more. It is a scathing look at the policies that continue to harm Black children with a final chapter on education related reparations that is a testament to the power of possibility.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins
This work of narrative nonfiction tells the stories of three teachers from three different regions of the United States. Robbins follows them for a school year and reports on their victories and challenges. Robbins uses these three teachers as a starting point and then expands out to discuss the policies and practices that confront teachers more broadly. I’m not sure you can get a full picture of the teaching profession from just three experiences, The Teachers does give you a glimpse into what it is like to be an American school teacher in the 2020s.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America by Cara Fitzpatrick
If you want a book that explains, in detail, the history of vouchers and charter schools, this is for you! Fitzpatrick gives a moment by moment history starting in the 1950s through to today and details the court battles that enabled families to opt out of public schools while still using public funds. This might not be a great overview book, but again, if detail is what you want, The Death of Public School has you covered.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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