In her book Ghosts In The Schoolyard, University of Chicago scholar Eve Ewing asks a central question about the 2013 mass closings of Chicago Public Schools: If the schools were so bad, why did people fight so hard to save them?

Her investigation is a deep and nuanced investigation of the public school system that reveals important lessons about how we conduct education policy. The conclusions from her work reverberate beyond Chicago.

Subscribe to Big Brains on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify.

Music used in this episode: Building The Sled, Gaddy,Are We Loose Yet, Roundpine,Thoothless Slope, and Children of Lemuelby Blue Dot Sessions