Herbert J. Walberg
Cato Institute
August 2007
Herb Walberg's timely primer is an informative who's who and what's what of the world of school choice. Starting from the premise that U.S. schools lag far behind their international counterparts, the book explores both the positive and negative results of school choice experiments. Separate chapters take up various versions of school choice (charter schools, education vouchers, private schools) and external dynamics (geopolitical realities, parental satisfaction). He conducts a thorough review of research on each of these topics--Hoxby, Greene, and Moe are omnipresent--but omits studies he finds less than scientifically rigorous. His compilations of studies on a given subject--the effects of charter school competition on local district schools, for example-- are particularly compelling. Walberg quietly (and not surprisingly) concludes that school choice is a preferable alternative to the traditional public school system. You can find his book here.