The Wrecking Crew

Thomas Frank’s new book, The Wrecking Crew: How conservatives rule, is well worth reading, even though it has little new to offer on the role of the neocons in public education, NCLB, testing or school reform. However it does affirm much of our general analysis of Ownership Society politics. He does offer the reader some cogent insights into conservative corporate/government sub-contracting and so-called “mismanagement," especially in Post-Katrina New Orleans, the current economic crisis, and reconstruction in Iraq. There’s also some good info on right-wing think tanks and foundations, for those like us who keep one eye on such things.

Frank also manages to pick up the same good William Bennett story that we did. It seems that when former FCC commissioner Reed Hunt asked Bennett for help in getting legislation passed to pay for internet access in every public school classroom, Bennett reportedly refused.

According to Hunt:

He told me he would not help because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capacity, new tools for success. He wanted them to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers, charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education.

Frank is a contributing editor at Harpers. You can hear his recent interview on Fresh Air, here.