The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers

by Josh Cowen

A deep-dive investigation of education privatization that reveals voucher programs as the faulty products of decades of work by wealthy patrons and influential conservatives

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Education, Audiobook

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2024

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but informative. The research shows vouchers don't work.

[Claire Reagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to finish listening to it. Was very informative though it was also bleak. Will be buying a copy to use as I talk about public school funding and the dangers of vouchers with others.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredibly important and very relevant. FUND PUBLIC SCHOOLS !!!!

[Eileen Neeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio. Exactly what the name says. Big names buying political power and using a private agenda to take tax money from public school. Little information about how vouchers work and why they fail students, but rather the information on the people and organizations funding and pushing.

[Jessica Skoglund · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOOOW this book was such a comprehensive read on why vouchers are harmful. Side note to anyone who knows or works with Josh Cowen: do not cross this man, or he will come for you with statistics. 😂 For real though, I really appreciated how Cowen completely stuck to numerical data to make his claims and did so in a clear and compelling way.

This book is probably best suited for educators or for those wanting talking points in favor of public education.

Keeping track of my biggest takeaways here for future reference (TLDR PUBLIC DOLLARS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS Y’ALL):

1. The best way to help public schools is not to encourage competition (as voucher advocates would have you believe) but simply to give public schools more money in the first place.

2. There is literally NO data to support vouchers as helping in any academic metric. Even as a public school teacher, this fact surprised me! The ONLY positive voucher data is from things like graduation rates or parent surveys.

3. Vouchers have been presented as a grassroots movement, and that’s simply not true. Looking at any of the major pushes for vouchers, it’s always the same 5-6 families / foundations behind them.

4. Most students who use a voucher end up returning to public school later.

5. The history of vouchers is incredibly problematic. They were introduced in the 1950s in the wake of Brown v. Board to covertly segregate schools, and today they are used for similar reasons.

[ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh, there is a lot of good research and insight in this book and it is worth a read. But Cowen writes from a bubble that fails to see any valid reason as to why conservatives are threatened by the current public education system. As such he isn’t rising above the culture war to fix it but is instead participating in it. Consequently this book may end up serving as little more than another log on that fire.

[Angie Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes what I have learned over years about the efforts to privatize education and stitches it together into a cogent, and terrifying story.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every legislator in every state should be required to read this book.

[Tibby]

The premise of the book is that vouchers as a came out of the era of desegregation. The guy who first suggested them wasn't necessarily looking for an answer for how white parents could get out of sending their kids to integrated schools, but he wasn't opposed to it being used that way. Over the next few decades the torch for vouchers was picked up by various right wing families and organizations which funded programs that provided vouchers and also "researched" their effectiveness. Basically there is zero integrity in any of the research into whether or not vouchers work for improving education.

The problem here and the reason I DNF'd the book a third of the way in is that it's so poorly written. Dry, disorganized, and sort of nonsensical at points. He never seems to say what he's actually trying to say and if you can stay awake long enough to take his point you might eventually get it. I could not read more than three sentences before wandering off. This should have been juicy. There is dark money and awful billionaire families and shady research practices. Instead I'm not sure what was going on. Too bad because education is a fucking disaster in this country right now (maybe from here on out?) and we need clarity on the many issues that are plaguing our schools.

[Sam Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read book. It comes with all of the history and empirical data detailing the radical right wing nationalist takeover of our school systems. The concept of school choice originated and still hinges on segregationalist ideologies. And the idea of parents' rights never give any mention to the rights of children, because in this ideology children are owned chattel bestowed upon the parents which robs the next generations of their self determination.

The damage has largely already been done and we can see the effects of the long campaign waged against evidence backed education so there's a lot of ground to make up in an uphill struggle but the first step is to understand the foundations and the strategies that led us here. This gives great information as well as actionable steps to advocate for that reasonable leaders can put in place. The future depends on the development and knowledge passed down.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an important book for understanding that vouchers were a creation of the wealthy Right in America to undermine public education and ultimately siphon public funds into private schools to make individuals wealthy (and started as a bid to avoid mandated integration). This is, in my view, about as fair and unbiased a view as you can get on school vouchers which fail children by every measurable educational metric.

But this book is also about how it was never about research after all. They needed a few statistical "wins" to get everything off the ground, but after large-scale vouchers started demonstrating massive educational losses, the narrative changed. Suddenly it wasn't about "student outcomes" or "evidence-based" anything; it was about "educational choice" and "parents' rights." To be clear, this was always an ideological effort, but the effect has been a large-scale skepticism of public education that will ultimately fail every student, private and public alike.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh Cowen brings a particularly valuable perspective to this book, as someone who did early research on the voucher movement, and was a supporter of the idea. Given subsequent research, he's changed his tune completely, and this book uncovers the massive ideological and economic project underpinning and funding vouchers, charter schools and the like in an effort to undercut America's public schools. He's got real knowledge of the topic, and does a good job highlighting the key turning points in the voucher movement.

My one critique of Cowen is when he strays away from his role of researcher, he can get polemical and rather than trying to mitigate the culture wars, he jumps right into them. There are a few places where a snide comment, or a seemingly tangential critique demonstrates a secondary goal beyond a mere critique of the empty policy goals of the voucher movement.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book i received from the Denver FFRF convention, signed to my brainy, beautiful, blasphemous bride and I.
I don't know what infuriated me more about this book. Was it the fact that "school voucherism AKA vulturism" pretty much began, on my watch, in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin OR was it the disgusting push for school vouchers in Louisiana as Hurricane Katrina devastated that area?
Project 2025 is misleading as Christian Nationalism has been pushing the dumbing down of America since the beginning.
Josh Cowen's short yet startling book is an excellent history of what unfortunately might be the end of American Exceptionalism.
But...with people like Cowen on the case, we have a fighting chance against the Denominationalists Dumbing Down Democracy.

[Laurel Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh Cowen makes a clear statement that research shows no consistent and reliable evidence vouchers succeed in reaching performance gains over public schools. He reports on the results of the voucher programs in Wisconsin and Michigan. While initial results show positive gains, these gains were not sustained over a period of time. Those private schools that showed some gain were marked by selecting students on criteria that restricted some students on the basis of income which, in effect, benefited rich schools but kept out students from poor neighborhoods. The Privateers clearly shows how conservative, wealthy billionaires mobilized to get vouchers passed without input from the public.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The information is top-notch. It is a dry read. But it's so important!! It's so interesting to see the progression of vouchers from an academic imperative to a parent's rights issue, once everyone saw that vouchers don't work academically.

I remember falling for the DC school choice movie/propaganda as it was happening in real time. The West Wing even had an episode about it (and it's famously progressive). I'm glad I know better now and, hopefully, can watch out for falling for similar propaganda.

[Lauren Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Privateers explores the rise of school vouchers beginning in the 1990s and tracks their troubling expansion in more recent years. The book reads as a who's-who of privatization zealots.

The writing style wasn’t a good fit for me, and I was disappointed by the lack of hopeful solutions or strategies to push back against these efforts. It’s not an easy read—both in content and tone.

One thing is clear: vouchers don’t work. When public schools are properly funded, they thrive.

[Martín Q. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Clearly outlines the connection between the radical far right, Christian Nationalist efforts to simultaneously discredit/defund public schools while expanding vouchers to privatize education for their profit and to our kids' detriment. It's frustrating how many people buy into the over-simplified "parental choice" argument without knowing the motivations and the actual data that shows it hurts our kids.

[Howard Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

You think the sudden explosion of "voucher" programs came from nowhere? This has been a organized and well funded push for decades to privatize public schools, beginning (of course) after desegregation. This book unpacks the monied interests that have funded the push and you will recognize some of the names. And it shows you who benefits, though you can probably guess.

[William A. Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good read. The book’s chapters were organized well and the research was excellent.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vouchers don't work. Voters and taxpayers need to seriously challenge the lack of accountability and false narratives of the voucher movement. School vouchers are rip-offs--taxpayers beware!

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry, but very informative.

[Cassie Vazquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should be required reading for everyone who benefits from the public school system (spoiler - that’s all of us).

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could only give 4 stars based on the discomfort this book gave me. The broad network of players working behind the scenes gives one the feeling we've been played.

[Lenny]

all my homies hate betsy devos!!!

[MaryAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a public school advocate, this book made me furious!

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my. Everyone should read this book to understand the current state of the education wars in the US. It is the story of the very focused, exceedingly well financed (by Betsy DeVos and her ilk) and cunningly carried out plan to reduce support for public education and substitute vouchers that let parents pay for private or religious schools, or for home schooling or just a trampoline in the back yard, all with no accountability and at tremendous cost to citizens and public schools. They knew exactly what they were doing and have succeeded remarkably well with some sort of voucher program in about 1/2 of all US states. The author was once a proponent of vouchers and involved in assessing their effectiveness. Eventually, he found that the research showed the overwhelming majority of children fared less well educationally under vouchers. This was becoming coming knowledge until the right found that emphasizing cultural issues in public schools (Moms for Liberty, etc), LGBTQ, trans issues and DEI gave them a new lease on life. Overreach on the Left did give them plenty to work with. However, the damage to public schools has been extensive. Cowen concludes that the only solution to our education problem is to FUND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cowen was researching the early vouchers and knows many of the players. He became disenchanted when he saw first-hand the research that clearly proved the achievement of voucher students is measure-ably WORSE than public school children. Proponents then pivoted their criteria of success to "parent satisfaction." I hear the same frustrating story from our state legislators. They learned their message! Messaging pivoted again, saying vouchers (ESAs) are the "civil rights issue of our century. And now Trumpians are back to using "vouchers" as code for racial segregation, just as Milton Friedman, the godfather of vouchers and the southern racists envisioned all those years ago. Things circle back and back. The same actors appear and reappear. And politicians & billionaires ignore evidence to line their pockets. Cowen can connect the dots because he was on the inside before he fled.