The Independent recently reported that the Michaela Community School (MCS) in Wembley, London, is being accused of giving its students detention if their parents are unable to make payments for their child’s lunches. As punishment the school enforces a “lunch isolation” where a child is given fruit and a sandwich instead of a hot meal…

Jonathan Kozol. Free Schools. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972). Matt Hern. Field Day: Getting Society Out of School. (Vancouver: New Star Books, 2003). During this year’s School Choice Week, this pair of books can bring some perspective exactly because they aren’t brought up by either side of the debate. Neither author writes in the tone…