Edison Schools

Kenneth J. Saltman is Assistant Professor, Social and Cultural Studies in Education, DePaul University.

"Informative, engaging and elegantly written, this book brilliantly reveals how corporations and their drive to maximize profit are infiltrating our public school system, imposing their priorities on our children, and undermining values of community and democracy." -- Joel Bakan, author of The Corporation"This is a brilliant and eye-opening book about the baleful influence corporate culture is having upon public education and should be read by every parent, student, and citizen concerned about the fate of public education." -- Henry A. Giroux, Global Television Network Chair in Communication Studies and English at McMaster University"The privatization of America's public schools is one of the most important political projects of this century, and this agenda cannot be understood without also understanding the history and trajectory of the Edison Schools, the largest for-profit school management company in the United States." -- Alex Molnar, Professor and Director, Education Policy Studies Laboratory, Arizona State University"well-documented historical critique of Edison, Inc., which has tried to create the country's largest for-profit network of schools." -- Rethinking Schools Online"A well-documented historical critique of Edison, Inc., which has tried to create the country's largest for-profit network of schools. The author scrutinizes a range of important issues from the reading and math curriculum used in Edison schools to the broader political forces that are advocating privatization of schools." -- Rethinking Schools Online"The Edison Schools is an important book in the era of No Child Left Behind, for it powerfully addresses the issues of race and class that underlie current educational reform...Saltman's engaging and limpid writing style makes this book accessible to all audiences, and will be equally useful to researchers, educators, and communities struggling to decide about privatization in their own school district."--Education Review: A Journal of Book Reviews (on-line), (November 12,2005)"Easy to read with minimal reliance on jargon or esoteric theoretical terms, the book is designed for a broad audience beyond academe...I highly recommed The Edison Schools. I am confident it will contribute to the discussion on the future of education and the need for democratic renewal."--Teachers College Record (on-line), September 20, 2005.

• Table of Contents Acknowledgments Series Editors' Introduction Introduction: Pledging Allegiance to the Corporation Chapter One: Rise and Fall Chapter Two: But Does it Work? Chapter Three: Edron: Two Brief Studies in Corporate Unaccountability Chapter Four: No Contest: Edison's Takeover of the Philadelphia Schools and the Lessons of Public School Competition Chapter Five: Corporate Schooling and the Future of the Public Index