The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public

Abstract

The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools by David C. Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995. 414 pp. $25.00, cloth. Reviewed by Faustine C. Jones-Wilson, Journal of Negro Education Editor-in-Chief Emerita. The title of this well-written, thoroughly documented book succinctly explains its intent. In it, the authors expose, debunk, and refute popular beliefs about education in the United States widespread since the publication of A Nation at Risk (1983). These include the following, that: (a) America's public schools are failing generally, (b) U.S. college student performance has declined recently, (c) American students typically fall behind their counterparts in advanced European and Asian countries with respect to achievement on standardized tests, (d) private schools are intrinsically better than public schools, (e) investments in public education are not worth the price, (f) America spends much more on education than other countries, and (g) the U.S. economy and the country's future are threatened by the failure of its public schools. Instead of falling into the customary defensive posture about public schooling in the U.S., however, Berliner and Biddle take the offensive in the ongoing debate. Berliner, an educational psychologist, and Biddle, a social psychologist, are prominent scholars and well-respected, experienced academicians. As this collaboration reveals, they are skilled at analyzing and interpreting data as well as at decoding high-sounding polemical pronouncements. They are also quite fair, as exemplified by the continuous advice they give to readers to assess their analyses as closely as they assess those of the contemporary educational critics who invented the crisis that is the focus of this investigation. The book begins by exposing the hidden agendas of prominent modern educational critics and ideologues, particularly those who employed by the federal government from 1983 to 1991. The authors then commence providing evidence that the attacks on public schools during that period by pro-voucher and/or privatization advocates, many of whom are friends of the ideologues noted above, are replete with myths and fraudulent assertions about the shortcomings of the majority of America's public schools. Indeed, the viewpoint that permeates this hard-hitting tome is one asserting that a pattern of organized malevolence has misled Americans about public schools and their accomplishments since 1983. These myths, Berliner and Biddle maintain, have been widely disseminated and vigorously touted by powerful people who were pursuing a political agenda designed to weaken the nation's public schools, redistribute support for those schools so that privileged students are favored over needy students, or even abolish those schools altogether (p. xii). The authors, on the other hand, conclude that the average public school is holding its own while educating an increasingly diverse constituency. Moreover, they contend that the American school system is in far better shape than the critics would have us believe. In the first three information-packed chapters, readers are apprised in detail about fraudulent statements related to the achievement and aptitude of America's students. They are also alerted to myths about the costs of education and about the relations between schools and industry, the latter of which frequently blames the nation's public schools for the problems and challenges faced by American corporations. Lastly, the authors describe the specific features of public schools that the critics view as offensive or as the root causes of widespread public dissatisfaction with public education. In this regard, Berliner and Biddle maintain that the critics choose to ignore both the public school success stories as well as the serious social dilemmas these schools are compelled to face. Their hard-hitting analysis demonstrates that most of the negative claims raised in opposition to public schools during the period under question are not supported by hard data. …