The reform and survival of American public schools: an institutional perspective

In the early years of the education reform movement, no one contemplated the demise of the nation's public schools. While the rhetoric was flamboyant ('a nation at risk') and the diagnosis of critics was severe indeed (William Bennett declared Chicago's schools in educational meltdown), no one prognosticized a doomsday scenario for public education. Yet it is just that prospect which has become commonplace in the mid-1990s. Warnings that the future of public education is in jeopardy are heard almost daily, particularly from public school defenders.