Public Funds Public Schools is thrilled to announce that Dr. Josh Cowen, leading national expert on private school vouchers, will be featured in PFPS’s next webinar on October 24 at 3 ET.

Dr. Cowen, currently a Senior Fellow at Education Law Center, which directs the PFPS campaign, will discuss his new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, with Maria Bautista, Lead Trainer at NYU Metro Center’s Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative.

Dr. Cowen’s book provides a deep-dive investigation of education privatization. It covers a range of topics, including the origins of private school vouchers and the network of billionaire conservatives who have converged around the issue. The Privateers also highlights how vouchers are failing students and exacerbating income inequality, arguing that advancement of privatization policies is an assault on public education as a defining American institution.

Register here for The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers on October 24 at 3 p.m. ET.

Dr. Cowen is a professor of education policy at Michigan State University. He is frequently quoted in media stories about private school vouchers and has published numerous scholarly articles on the subject. Recently, his writing has focused on voucher students’ poor academic results, as well as the role of vouchers in defunding and segregating public schools. Dr. Cowen is currently taking a one-year distinguished leave from MSU to provide strategic, policy, research, and communications advice and direction for Education Law Center’s anti-voucher work and to add to PFPS’s research and advocacy tools.

Maria Bautista is the Lead Trainer at NYU Metro Center’s Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative, where she is supporting national education justice campaigns, including the launch of a national training program to support education organizing. She previously worked at the Alliance for Quality Education, leading a campaign that secured major victories for New York State students, including the successful push for the state to pay $4 billion owed to public schools. With over 15 years of experience in organizing, Maria focuses on racial justice, community building, and leadership development. She holds a Master’s in Social Work and has extensive policy expertise in education and racial justice.