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Owens provides a historical analysis of the ideological movements and reform efforts leading to the Common Core State Standards, beginning with conservative criticism of public schools in the 1930s and culminating in a convergence of the political right and left in efforts to systemically reform education based on free market principles.

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1. The Nation Was at Risk and the Public Schools Did It 2. Public Schools: Conservative Coalescence and the Socialist Threat 3. Friedmanomics, School Vouchers and Choice 4. Corporate Superstars and an Inconvenient Truth 5. Public Schools and a Third Way of Governing 6. NCLB and the Texas Tall Tale 7. Education Reform and the Deep State: An Alternate Universe 8. The CCSS: Systemic Education Reform Writ Large 9. CCSS: The Gorilla in the Room for Free Market Education Reform

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"This timely book goes beyond the tired debates about the Common Core State Standards and asks instead: How did we get here, with self-appointed "reformers" casting public schools as the enemy, and unproven market models for education as the answer? This comprehensively documented treatment of that question proves that Deborah Duncan Owens is a voice to be reckoned with in education policy debates." - Christopher Lubienski, Professor of Education Policy, University of Illinois, USA; Sir Walter Murdoch Visiting Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University, Australia; and author of The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools (2014)

"Deborah Owens offers a detailed probe of the corporate-political alliances that cross party lines to push radical ventures traveling as education reform. She provides a needed history of what is really behind the Common Core, the curriculum and testing it requires, and why anyone who supports the survival of local public schools should care." - Susan Ohanian, Fellow, National Education Policy Center

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Thomas J. Fiala, Arkansas State University, USA

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