A massive free-market shift has transformed public education over the past two decades. Where public schools were once fairly robust, they are now being marketized, and power is being taken away from parents and education workers. We expect Republicans to zealously promote this kind of policy, but, in many cases, Democrats have been the most effective school neoliberalizers — especially in America’s cities.

Recently, Dwight Evans, a former Pennsylvania state representative now serving in Congress, explained how he “imploded” the public governance of Philadelphia’s schools. While more dramatic and publicly self-reflective than most other school privatizers, Evans’s story shows just how zealous the Democratic side of the bipartisan effort to erode public education can be.