• Charter Schools and Their Enemies

  • By: Thomas Sowell
  • Narrated by: Brad Sanders
  • Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (714 ratings)

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Charter Schools and Their Enemies

By: Thomas Sowell
Narrated by: Brad Sanders
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Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2021 Hayek Book Prize

A leading conservative intellectual defends charter schools against the teachers' unions, politicians, and liberal educators who threaten to dismantle their success.

The black-white educational achievement gap - so much discussed for so many years - has already been closed by Black students attending New York City's charter schools. This might be expected to be welcome news. But it has been very unwelcome news in traditional public schools whose students are transferring to charter schools. A backlash against charter schools has been led by teachers unions, politicians and others - not only in New York, but across the country. If those attacks succeed, the biggest losers will be minority youngsters for whom a quality education is their biggest chance for a better life.

©2020 Thomas Sowell (P)2020 Hachette Audio

What listeners say about Charter Schools and Their Enemies

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An excellent look into education.

Although this book had much in the way of facts and figures, it really broke down how charter schools are being diminished even when they are showing the ability to level the playing field of so many underprivileged children,

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6 people found this helpful

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Charter school student from 6th to 12th grade.

I hoped to get insight as to why my school fell from grace, I got that and much, much more. Thomas Sowell never disappoints.

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Concerned about K-12 education? Read this!

Sowell provides us with clear concise information about the effort to deny disadvantaged parents school choice.

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Everyone should read!

A bit statistics heavy in chapter 2, but solid read. This is a well reasearched pro-charter arguement.

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Lots of good points

To be honest. I did not listen to this all at once. When I did finish the book I had already decided that private school would be the best option for my son of color (I'm AfAm, son is biracial). Before the book I was pretty pro-charter and remain so.

Towards the end Sowell makes a really good point using Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, which is a short walk from my house. The scores, all around are abysmal. But the building is beautiful and looks like it would belong to any small college. Considering a former mayor and other notables still active in public life attended Dunbar when it was a premier school for AfAm students, Sowell's warnings about what could happen when charter schools are hobbled is made very real by this example.

There are other good points as well.

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Educational Read

This book is AMAZING!! It is an absolute MUST READ, for ALL parents!! It will change the way that you think about education and schooling, and provides citations for you to verify its information!

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attention parents

If you're a parent considering charter schools, this book is a must read. There's a lot of information that I had absolutely no idea about.

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Fact-based book exposes how we're All being played

i got this on audible and finished it in 3-4 workouts at gym. Its stunning. a must read. Love Dr Sowell bc he explains whats been going on, in simple language we can all understand.

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Great book.

This book is amazing. Our education system is terrible, and vested interests are the reason. More people need to know what's going on.

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A Great Book on a Crucial Issue.

You're doing your children and our future a disservice by not reading this book. A must read for parents and true educators.

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