dmaze

Over the past week I read through Education Myths: What Special-Interest Groups Want You to Believ About our Schools -- And Why It Isn't So by the (rightish) Manhattan Institute's Jay P. Greene. The phrase "special interest" is only really used on the cover, and inasmuch as organized groups are implicated at all in education's issues only the teacher's unions are specifically brought up. The book cites sociological research to make a point, largely that adding funding hasn't historically improved schools but current research on voucher programs suggests they help. This wasn't really a light fluffy read but it was still pretty well-written, and if the subject matter sounds interesting to you it's probably worth a read.

In all, this seemed like a worthwhile book to me. It visibly has a position (which you can guess from the cover and table of contents). I don't have the background to really tell if it's covering almost all of the relevant research or a specific subset, or if the author's research is totally legit. Still, it made an argument supported by data, and there's always something to be said for that.