Read This First

• “The Public School Monopoly: America 's Berlin Wall” by David Boaz in Liberating Schools: Education in the Inner City (Washington: Cato Institute, 1991), pp. 1-49
  The best introduction to the case for school choice.

On the Failure of Government Schools and Compulsory Attendance

• Public Education: An Autopsy by Myron Lieberman (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993)
  Lieberman's magnum opus on the failures of public education and opportunities for choice. A very thorough and in-depth treatment of the subject.
• The Twelve-Year Sentence: Radical Views of Compulsory Schooling edited by William F. Rickenbacker (1974; San Francisco : Fox & Wilkes, 1999)
  Criticisms of compulsory attendance laws from Murray Rothbard, E. G. West, and others.
• Education and the State by E. G. West (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1994)
  A criticism of the economic arguments in favor of state education.
• Compelling Belief: The Culture of American Schooling by Stephen Arons (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986)
  A survey of how compulsory, monopoly schools stifle dissent and force everyone into a one-size-fits-all system.

On the Market Alternative in Education

• Market Education: The Unknown History by Andrew Coulson (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1999)
  The history of market-provided education from classical Athens to modern America, along with a critique of the current system and suggestions for free-market reform.
• Separating School and State by Sheldon Richman (Fairfax, Va.: Future of Freedom Foundation, 1994)
  A highly readable argument for getting government entirely out of education.
• Education without the State by James Tooley (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1996)
  A review of how education can be and has been provided without the state, and a plan for moving British education toward freedom.

On the Struggle for School Choice

• Voucher Wars: Waging the Legal Battle over School Choice by Clint Bolick (Washington: Cato Institute, 2003)
  Tells the story of the legal battle for school choice, from the first legal challenges to the 1990 Milwaukee voucher experiment to the 2002 Zelman decision vindicating the constitutionality of Cleveland's voucher program.
• Politics, Markets, and America's Schools by John E. Chubb and Terry M. Moe (Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1990)
  The book that started the voucher ball rolling in policy circles. This cogent critique of the educational establishment offers some libertarian policy solutions and some that are not so libertarian.
• School Choice: Why You Need It--How You Get It by David Harmer (Washington: Cato Institute, 1994)
  A good summary of the case for school vouchers, with an annotated text of the California voucher initiative, explaining just what should be in a choice initiative and why.
• "Vouchers and Educational Freedom: A Debate with Joseph L. Bast and David Harmer versus Douglas Dewey," (Policy Analysis no. 269, March 12, 1997)
  A debate on whether school vouchers would lead to more or less educational freedom.

On Innovative Educational Reforms

• School's Out: Hyperlearning, the New Technology, and the End of Education by Lewis Perelman (New York: Morrow, 1992)
  Brilliant insights about how technology and markets are going to revolutionize education.
• Why Schools Fail by Bruce Goldberg (Washington: Cato Institute, 1996)
  A critique of dominant educational theories for their anti-individualist basis.