“Hale shines a light on the dark history behind seemingly neutral concepts like school choice and neighborhood schools. Those concepts weren’t a meaningful part of the national lexicon until resistance to integration took hold. With these code words, Whites managed to paint themselves as the victims and integration as the oppressor. Hale helps us see how this shift has haunted and undermined equal education for half a century.” (Derek W. Black, author of Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy)

“Though we fight for both as if they are guaranteed in our founding documents, neither choice nor education is found in the Constitution. What Jon Hale’s The Choice We Face makes clear is that if we are to ensure a solid future for our traditional education system, we have to understand how communities have used the language and history of school choice as a weapon of mass destruction, as often as they have used those words as a battle cry to build a democracy that ensures freedom and citizenship for all. This book makes clear that the real choice we all face is the one between a hopeful future or an inequitable past.” (Noliwe Rooks, author of Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education)

“The Choice We Face is a bold book that puts race and segregation at the forefront of the educational reform movement. Hale’s writing is persuasive, comprehensive, and important for understanding how we fight against the school choice movement.” (Bettina L. Love, author of We Want to Do More Than Survive)

"Supported with convincing research and illustrative detail, this impassioned history makes a strong case that quality of education - not variety of choice - should be the goal.” (Publishers Weekly)