The Fantasy Economy

"“A milestone recasting of a longstanding debate—education reform—that has for too long perpetuated false narratives about working classes and elite reproduction. The Fantasy Economy reclaims the emancipatory power of education. It is not to be missed.”—Clara E. Mattei, Associate Professor of Economics at the New School, and author of The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism “Deep-pocketed interests tell us that our economy suffers from educational gaps, not imbalances of power. The rest of us should read Neil Kraus’s revelatory book and call this ubiquitous idea what it is: a fantasy that makes Americans more unequal and insecure.”—Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream ""[A] deeply researched account of the stunning extent to which we’ve been deceived by privately-funded think tanks, billionaire philanthropists, and lawmakers invested in promulgating illusions that justify the neoliberal order — while wreaking havoc on real students, educators, and schools.... Kraus demonstrates with impressive detail how, through an incredible proliferation of official-sounding reports, privately funded think tanks and university centers have sought to convince Americans that night is day and up is down.""—Jacobin"