Not to be confused with the Carnegie Foundation book carrying the same title, Educating Citizens is a very good resource for those who want to learn about how Western European societies have considered the issue of school choice. The editors have collected a series of reports on how private, generally religious, schooling has operated in the most developed countries of Europe, and they conclude that a variety of educational choices will benefit primary and secondary schooling in the United States. However, such choices must be well regulated to ensure the development of civic values among youth here. They argue for “a certain sort of publicly funded pluralism in education; pluralism justified by value differences but contained by significant regulation and tamed by systems that ensure accountability” (p. 4).

The editors introduce the volume by reviewing and summarizing the chapters in the book, and so can save some readers the time or trouble to actually read the whole text. Their aforementioned conclusions do not always concur with those of the authors of individual chapters, and so readers may want to examine more closely the country chapters that most interest them. Part I includes case studies that begin with the most pluralist systems and “proceed, roughly, toward systems that provide less scope for school choice” (p. 9): the Netherlands, Britain, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, and Italy. Jaap Dronkers concludes the section with a comparative essay on the relative success of private schools in cognitive and civic training.

While all the country studies provide information useful for researchers interested in this particular topic, Denis Meurat's essay on France and, to a lesser degree, Luisa Ribolzi's on Italy will capture the attention of nonspecialists. Meurat, especially, has succeeded in explaining deep historical differences between France and more “pluralist” systems of school choice arising from the relationship of church, state, and the individual. He also dares to include his own experiences in the French school system as a means of helping readers understand school choice phenomenologically. All contributors in this section present information and analyses of their countries in a clear and competent manner; Meurat and Ribolzi demonstrate an understanding of theirs that transcends the research data and helps place issues in a broader cultural and philosophical context.

Part II consists of essays by William Galston, Richard Garnett, Charles Glenn, and John Witte, with Charles Venegoni and David Ferrero linking evidence from these countries to issues of civic education in the United States. Galston recognizes differences between Europe and the United States on issues of civic education and school choice, and he recommends policy instruments least foreign to our system, such as Alberta's exit exam in social studies. Garnett, Glenn, and, to some degree, Witte suggest fewer regulations than do the editors of the volume, and so readers can learn from a variety of viewpoints. For the most part, these four contributors do not advocate policies learned from European systems; so the other essayists failed, ironically, to impress upon some learned contributors “the ways in which the countries we examine here regulate school choice for the sake of promoting the public benefits of choice” (p. 5). Venegoni and Ferrero read the evidence from the Netherlands as a model for a regulated pluralist system of school choice here—and their essay provides a bookend to the volume that tries to keep it “on message.”

The editors had other difficulties keeping the contributors on message. On the one hand, all the authors considered civic education as a theme, but the North American contributors understood the editors' charge better than some of their European counterparts. Jan De Groof's analysis of Belgium ignores the topic, for the most part; Ben Vermeulen discusses only legal and constitutional issues relevant to civic education, as do Neville Harris and Stephen Gorard writing on Britain. On the other hand, European contributors emphasize sociological foundations of the issue, while David Campbell or the authors in Part II do not for Canada and the United States. So although participants wrote about political education and choice, many did not choose to learn a common conceptual language about citizenship training—another ironic consequence of the conference out of which this volume arose. Nonetheless, all the essays in the book are thoughtful, scholarly, and worthy of consideration by those interested in the particular subject matter(s).

Important voices that are not heard here regarding K–12 education and school choice are those of students. Some contributors surveyed parents, politicians, and school officials, but researchers ought to listen to children and discover what they understand about their own schools and citizenship. The strength of this collection is to collate official academic discourse on the topic; its shortcomings present opportunities for future research into what students and citizens actually think about the issue.

The editors pose a central concluding question: “[W]hat combination of choice and regulation, legal limits, requirements, tests, and incentives will allow U.S. society to realize all of its important public educational values?” (p. 25). Yet because no democratic society has ever realized all of its important public educational values, can such a question even be answered? Given the alleged pluralism in this country, can we talk about a coherent set of public educational values, or should we be asking ourselves different questions?

Here are other questions future researchers may want to consider: Does the language of school choice obscure ways in which parents and students understand civic values? Who chooses how citizens discuss school choice? Are there things “about which it is preferable not to talk, hence the absence of research” (Meurat, p. 261) on issues such as the voice of individual citizens most affected by choice? Research in this area would contribute greatly to the civic education of academics and, maybe, other citizens.