Exit, Voice, and Loyalty – a book you can't get out of your head – was written by Albert Hirschman, a political economist and total mensch (read his obituary). I find that his framework is immensely useful in thinking about schools. The core argument is that political and economic organizations are responsive to different kinds … Continue reading The Problem of Public Schools in a Liberal Democracy: Insights from Albert Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty”
This post is a commentary on historian Walter Scheidel’s book, Escape from Rome, which is a stunningly original analysis of a topic that has long fascinated scholars like me: How did Europe come to create the modern world? This post is republished in my new book, The Emergent Genius of American Higher Education. Scheidel examines … Continue reading How the Fall of Empire Spurred the Rise of Modernity — and Parallels with the Rise of US Higher Ed
This post is an essay of mine that is now the opening chapter of my new book, The Emergent Genius of American Higher Education. The path toward its latest iteration was long and winding. Let me count the curves along the way. This version was published in Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal for the Historiography of Education … Continue reading A System Without a Plan
This post is an essay by Peter Greene in which he discusses a fascination argument made by a free-market economist on why free-market approaches such as vouchers will not work with public education. The economist, Douglas Harris, shows how no fewer than six conditions that are necessary for the functioning of an efficient free-market economy … Continue reading Free Market Approaches Don’t Work for Public Education
This post is an essay of mine that laid the foundation for my 2017 book, A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education. Getting there was a long and winding road. Let me count the curves along the way. This version was published in Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal for the Historiography of Education in … Continue reading A System Without a Plan
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 