Exploring the role of identitarian politics in the privatization of Newark's public school system
In Expelling Public Schools, John Arena explores the more than two-decade struggle to privatize public schools in Newark, New Jersey-a conflict that is raging in cities across the country-from the vantage point of elites advancing the pro-privatization agenda and their grassroots challengers.
Analyzing the unsuccessful effort of Cory Booker-Newark's leading pro-privatization activist and mayor-to generate popular support for the agenda, and Booker's rival and ultimate successor Ras Baraka's eventual galvanization of the charter movement, Arena argues that Baraka's black radical politics cloaked a revanchist agenda of privatization.
Expelling Public Schools reveals the political rise of Booker and Baraka, their one-time rivalry and subsequent alliance, and what this particular case study illuminates about contemporary post-civil rights Black politics. Ultimately, Expelling Public Schools is a critique of Black urban regime politics and the way in which antiracist messaging obscures real class divisions, interests, and ideological diversity.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Expelling Public Schools offers a fascinating look into the racial politics of corporate school reform in Newark Public Schools. John Arena takes a long view-just over two decades-and examines the reform movements and countermovements in the district from the top down and the bottom up. In assessing corporate school reform efforts under mayors Cory Booker and Ras Baraka, this deeply researched book illuminates the mechanisms that maintain educational inequality."-Rand Quinn, author of Class Action: Desegregation and Diversity in San Francisco Schools
"It is rare to encounter a work that treats actually existing Black life, an approach best articulated by Cedric Johnson, to critically address contemporary Black urban regimes. Thoughtful, careful, and incisive, Expelling Public Schools does just that. In this moment when antiracism (and surface critiques of antiracism) is rife, John Arena's work provides a wonderful tonic."-Lester Spence, author of Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics
"Arena's book asks why social movements collapse, and how liberal conceptions of racial politics, employed by a multiracial elite, have so often thwarted radical calls for change. Arena does an excellent job showing how the professional class's tactics kneecap the ability of nascent movements to define themselves and their goals."-The Nation
"Expelling Public Schools offers essential insights into much broader struggles to create a more just society."-Jacobin
"[Expelling Public Schools] constitutes a serious case study of school reform efforts and a roadmap for educational activists opposing school privatization."-CHOICE
"Arena's book asks why social movements collapse, and how liberal conceptions of racial politics, employed by a multiracial elite, have so often thwarted radical calls for change. Arena does an excellent job showing how the professional class's tactics kneecap the ability of nascent movements to define themselves and their goals."-The Nation
"Expelling Public Schools offers essential insights into much broader struggles to create a more just society."-Jacobin
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Illustrationen
6 black and white illustrations, 1 table, and 2 maps
Maße
Höhe: 216 mm
Breite: 140 mm
Dicke: 15 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-5179-1368-7 (9781517913687)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
John Arena is associate professor of sociology at CUNY's College of Staten Island and author of Driven from New Orleans: How Nonprofits Betray Public Housing and Promote Privatization (Minnesota, 2012).
