Neoliberal education reform is plagued by a contradiction in its commitments — schools need autonomy to be responsive to communities, yet most charters are run by non-educators with no stake in these communities.

Insulated from public, democratic bodies, charters are operated by “charter management organizations.” These organizations often manage multiple schools and are governed by unelected boards in which philanthropists vastly outnumber teachers or parents. Few charter schools are unionized, so educators have little say in the governance of the school. As the public school system is slowly dismantled, school-by-school, charters open in their place. Naturally, this has caused tension between neoliberal reformers and teachers.

This tension is one of the “teacher wars” Dana Goldstein discusses in her new book. This week, Malcolm Harris reviewed the book for the New Inquiry. His essay, though, is not so much a review as a hastily compiled collection of neoliberal criticisms of the educational status quo.