I was not a big fan of this book. I think that it could be an interesting story, but it was not up my normal alley. It was thoughtful and well written, but just not as easy to stay attuned to.

Bettina Love's "Punished for Dreaming" is an essential book not only for new teachers and educational leaders, but also for the general public. As special interest groups continue to assert the need to wrest control of education from professionals and experts, Love offers a searing critique of the inequalities that many students in American schools face. Not only does she emphasize the lack of representation and culturally responsive education, but she also examines the history of inequality and how educational reform in particular hurts students of color and students who come from low SES backgrounds. Using research, data and the particularly powerful narratives, interviews and experiences of those who have been punished for dreaming, Love crafts a powerful response to educational reform and posits how reparations for educational inequality could address some of the inequality in society. While I can see how others might view this proposal as controversial, Love and her colleagues have used data to determine an exact number for educational reparations.
While this book is not always easy to read, it is necessary and important for most Americans to read to understand the kinds of inequality that students face on a daily basis, and to see how we can make a change, not through the proposals like vouchers, charter schools, and other reformist approaches centered on making money rather than really supporting students.

This is, ultimately, a well-researched case for reparations and a new system of education that is actually for all students. It is, of course, awful to read about some of the effects that you may or may not have known about from various "education reform" measures. Thankfully, Love provides hope and a path forward as well.

This book is an absolute must read! Dr. Love lays out a compelling case on the systemic inequities in the U.S. education system that not only perpetuate disparities for black and brown communities, but also create essentially a feeder pool to the prison system. From President Reagan onward, a series of policies and reports highlighted the "achievement gaps" and the "track systems" as well as more recently "no child left behind." Evaluation systems were created that not only punished teachers and school systems, but in turn caused great harm to students' learning. But this book is not just about the history of education "reform" but adds a human face to this harm by sharing the stories of 25 different people. In the end, Dr. Love outlines reparations and actions. This is a systemic problem that will take a lot of collective efforts to challenge and dismantle these inequities.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

This book was absolutely eye opening. I am not from the U.S. so there was a lot I did not know until reading this. Absolutely honest and a call to action, I highly recommend anyone in education read this.

“White folx who do the work of racial justice need to get their people because Black folx are tired. And it’s not our job to save White people from Whiteness; we are trying to save ourselves from Whiteness, too.”

In this book, Love provides a truly comprehensive look at the past, present and future of our schools. She does a fantastic job of providing historical context to the racial disparities in schools and connecting this context to how it manifests today. The cause and effect relationships that were discussed were really interesting and I honestly did not want to put the book down. From there, Love explores the current state of education for Black students and the disparities they still face. The book wraps up with a look at the potential future of our schools and a well-crafted argument of the need for educational reparations to make up for disparities. This is a book that could have been a bit of a downer to read, but Love wove Black joy throughout, providing a sense of hopefulness for the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me an advanced reader’s copy of this book!

I received this book through NetGalley as an advanced copy for feedback.

I knew through recent publications and documentaries about the hidden agenda behind the war on drugs from years ago. But this book added to that when it also brought to light example after example of other practices that have been established to hurt certain races. Even things that look great to law-abiding citizens, like the "Just Say No" campaign to the "Three Strikes" laws that were passed.

When I was growing "Just Say No" seem like a no-brainer... drugs are bad, people who do drugs should be in jail. As an adult I have figure out that only certain people, or rather, certain drugs were targeted under this program. Why not all of them?

Likewise, the text does an excellent job of highlighting education reforms that were established to help those who are considered less advantaged has actually hurt them even more. From NCLB to returning to standardized testing after COVID - even though we can clearly see who is benefiting from this practice, it still continues.

I believe this book should be read by anyone who wishes to advocate school reform and anti-racism.

Bettina Love pulls no punches about America's educational system as a carcereal institution where private companies are making fortunes off of punishing black bodies. Tracing the failure of especially urban education fr9m Reagan's "reforms" through No Child Left Behind, Dr. Love vivisects public education to lay bare a decline that many have been decrying for decades.

As one of those white teachers in black schools who also teaches at the college level and who has taught in majority white spaced none of this was news to me. She gets a lot right. We need more black teachers. We need equal opportunity, equal resources, and equally difficult content. I'm even firmly behind reparations. If you arent, you especially need to read the last chapter. Show it to your racist family. Love also does amazing and important work drawing explicit connections between the War on Drugs and education reform.

But there is a core issue here that still has not been addressed. Money per student is spent very differently in minority majority institutions than white schools. Dr. Love goes into the what of that, and calls for change. She puts the why completely on white supremacy, racism, and anti-blackness.

But is that all? What is really going on on the ground here? Why can't some schools retain substitutes, paraeducators, nurses, counselors, all those support staff to spend money on instead of resource officers? Why does the school I work in have half of their students not receiving instruction in core subjects because of lack of personnel? Why did multiple teachers and every single paraeducator leave within the first month? Why are the vast majority of school staff (black and white) on the job market every single year for a job in one of those white spaces? Why would children rather be in ISS than regular classes?

Money isnt the only issue here. What kind of education do we want for everyone? What is its purpose? How do we get there? How do we get people to be curious? The industrial jobs from before the period of Love's study aren't coming back. Education has tanked across the board, although to varying degrees. The anti-CRT movement that Love discusses is worse than many realize and fights against basic things people our age and older take for granted as true and should be taught in school. What about the implosion of higher education? Minting too many PhDs? What needs to change in education to help people stay in the field. And just so much more.

Overall, this really resonated with me, but I wanted more connections and more acknowledgement of the multilayered complexity. Dr. Love and I are of an age (I entered high school in the 1993-1994 school year) making many of the personal experiences quite resonant. I'm here to keep listening and do the best that I can.

Once again, Love crafts a masterpiece. While I have already learned much of the information she discusses in this book, Love structures the narrative in such a way to elucidate new insights which make a deep and lasting impact. So many people need to read this and act upon what they learn from it.

Bettina L. Love's PUNISHED FOR DREAMING is phenomenal. It should be required reading for all teachers, administrators, and anyone else who even remotely works with kids and/or in education. I had considered myself well informed about education in the United States, especially around the school-to-prison pipeline. PUNISHED FOR DREAMING showed me how much I did not know--and it was a lot. I had no idea how deep and brutal the systemic issues in education are; I knew it was terrible, but I did not realize how devastating it is and how things have become worse year-over-year. I am so grateful for this book, so grateful to Bettina L. Love for all the work and pain it took to get this information into the hands of readers. I'm going to do my best to get it into the hands of everyone I know.

Dr. Love has written another thought provoking tome that challenges us to extend our assumptions and practices in teaching. This is a book to take your time with and revisit again and again. I think this is an essential read for teachers and stakeholders in education.

This is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and necessary read. I was unbelievably lucky in my schooling, but I recognize exactly what she describes in the experiences of others. Love unpacks forty years of racist education “reforms” and offers a plan for repair and reparation.

WOW. That’s the review. Truly amazing. Fascinating and necessary read for ALL. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched. Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press!

This volume deal, clearly and frankly, with the issues that underlie educational disadvantage for Black students in this country. It covers, in detail, the history of legal and societal issues designed to limit access to education for Black, and, to a lesser degree, Brown students. Once or twice it downplays how these same issues impacted minorities of European descent - I disagree with the author's contention that education was always intended to aid the assimilation of Italians, Irish, and Jews; that occurred primarily after Brown vs the Board of Education, and was a significant issue some decades previously - but certainly, she has cause to indicate, and document, the negative and ongoing impact of limiting educational access for Black students. This volume is well-researched and documented, and interleaves personal experiences of both the author and various others with a historical retrospective of education law and practice. As a special education teacher, I strongly recommend this volume for anyone working with students, either directly or indirectly, and for anyone interested in public policy as regards education.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

As a Floridian living in a modern-day Twilight Zone, I want to purchase this book for my schools superintendent and school board. What I appreciate about Punished for Dreaming is Bettina Love doesn’t just focus on certain pieces of history or cherry picked facts, her holistic approach to laying out the history WITH RECEIPTS should be required reading in every high school across the country.

This is thoroughly researched, expertly laid out and will absolutely rip your heart out and make you cry. The frustration and aggravation and anger I felt while reading this is nothing compared to what our black and brown students experience and we, as a country, has to do better.

Thank you for this gifted ALC!

This book was a hard read because of the topic in hand.
It’s very well written, backed with facts and explained by the historical context of US education system from the ending of segregation to current issues and push for charter schools again. It points out the failures in the education system and leaves you with actionable solutions.
This should be essential reading to educators and school administrators everywhere in the US.
I would also suggest adding it to your anti-racism reading list!

“Punished for Dreaming (How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal)“ by Dr. Bettina L. Love is a shocking, ambitious, well-documented, deep investigation into the world of black public school education in the USA, and indeed, education in general, looking at the enormous disparity between black and white public schools, charter schools, on-line schools, and the adverse effects of reformation on black students. For those born in more recent generations up to the 21st Century and as part of her indictment, Dr. Love gives us all a black education history lesson that will update those unfamiliar with this specific segment of American history: those informative sections alone might possibly get this book banned in some areas.

While the Reagan Administration correctly identified that overall public schools were failing, this deeply-researched book reveals the legacy of decades of (mis)educational reforms, including the George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and the Barack Obama administrations. Some charter schools are/were led and/or financed by some cultural icons who are famous black and white billionaires, and iconic athletes, all with the best of intentions but with varying success and some complete failures. Then minority public schools find themselves mixed in with various police programs, since some politicians have an unfair negative view black youth, that is racist. But the story goes back further in American history, demonstrating the negative financial impact that ineffective education has had on black students and families, and how education is adversely affected by landmark Supreme Court cases such as “Brown v. Board” and more.

This is just a sample of the many revelations in a heavily-footnoted book that should be required reading for all Americans to make them aware of these tenacious, enduring public educational problems in the black community with its far-reaching effects. Some of these very problems, affecting the black public school system so deeply, may well be ensnaring poor communities in general, across the nation for the foreseeable future. But Dr. Love ultimately gives us a way forward to solve some of these problems that may be controversial. Highly Recommended. Five RIVETING Stars. 352 pages. NetGalley.

Dr. Love is an amazing researcher and speaker who is able to prompt readers to reflect on their own experiences in educational roles. She provides the reader with a look into the systemic structures and inequities that impact our students. It clearly examines the reforms that have led to more harm and suggests ways to begin reparations for past decisions. I have been lucky enough to see Dr. Love in person and hear her passion echo through her words. This is a book that I will recommend to my educator friends as a must read. I received an advance copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Dr. Love's newest work is important for anyone involved in education or wanting more understanding of CRT and how the educational systems set in place harm Black children.
This is not an easy read, but it delves into topics that many of us need to read and understand. Not only does this work examine how educational reforms begun in the 1980s have harmed Black children, but it also examines how we continue to make the same mistakes and falsely cling to the idea that a good education is currently provided to all. If you read this, focus on the history and the how we heal parts of the book. THEY ARE IMPORTANT. full stop
I have recommended this to many colleagues and will continue to recommend in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Bettina Love has such a way of capturing the lives experiences of Black students and situating it in both historical and present context. This book is an unapologetic and honest critique of reforms and how they harm Black children. You can tell Dr. Love put a lot of thought, time, and love into this book. This is a must read.