Readers of Saltman's work will rediscover that keeping schools public is essential to keeping democracy alive and vibrant. As such, Collateral Damage is a must read for any college-level course in the areas of sociology, foundations in education, teacher education, curriculum development, cultural studies, multiculturalism, and ethnic studies.
Pepi Leistyna, University of Massachusetts, Boston Kenneth Saltman's important book arrives ... Read morenot a moment too soon…Collateral Damage is valuable not only for the well-reasoned political position the author takes, but also for the wealth of information it provides about commercialism in American public education. Given the largely uncritical public (as opposed to scholarly) discourse about privatization and commercialism in public education, Saltman's book is an especially useful and timely contribution.
Roslyn Arlin Mickelson
Teachers College Record
An insightful and timely examination of the corporatization of public education in the United States.Collateral Damage represents and important and provocative critique of the corporate sponsorship of education, linking this growing trend to globalization, a redefinition of public services as private commodities, and the militarization of the nation's public spaces. Saltman has presented a cogent analysis that is thoroughly accessible to scholars, laypeople, and all those interested in the nature of public education in the United States. Researchers, scholars, and educators at all levels, in particular, will find Collateral Damage a valuable resource and important contribution to the growing literature of the corporatization of public education.
Anthropology & Education Quarterly
In this succinct book, Saltman delivers to the reader reasons to get outraged over, excited about, and committed to protecting public education as a public space where democracy can and must flourish.
Educational Researcher
Collateral Damage: Corporatizing Public Schools provides a brilliant expose of the hidden curriculum of school privatization. By deconstructing the logic of the market, Kenneth J. Saltman draws a sharp distinction between a reductionistic discourse of school management, choice, and accountability and the imperatives of a vibrant democracy that prioritizes equity, critical citizenship, and social justice. Collateral Damage is an indispensable reading for all educators who yearn to make schools and society more democratic and less discriminatory.
Donaldo Macedo, University of Massachusetts, Boston Show Less