School moms Parent activism, partisan politics, and the battle for public education

Pappano (Inside School Turnarounds, 2010) makes no bones about her love for her public-school experience. As a child with little home stability, various personalities, subjects, and teaching methods gave her the foundation for her future. An education reporter, she takes a hard look at what political and religious division and misinformation have done to what, according to her, should be the backbone of our society. Much of what she discusses is centered in Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. (Ron DeSantis comes off particularly poorly.) For some, it began with protests against mask mandates in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and moved on to condemning critical-race theory and banning controversial subjects in curriculum and libraries, with politicians delineating what can and can't be taught. This is a serious piece of reporting. It's not a long book, and 20 of its pages are footnotes that back up Pappano's observations. For public and academic libraries, this is a capsulized view of a hot topic.