Charter Schools and the Corporate Makover of Public Education

by Fabricant, Michael; Fine, Michelle; Meier, Deborah

• ISBN13: 9780807752852
• ISBN10: 0807752851
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-16
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

This book will reset the discourse on charter schooling by systematically exploring the gap between the promise and the performance of charter schools. The authors do not defend the public school system, which for decades has failed primarily poor children of color. Instead, they use empirical evidence to determine whether charter schooling offers an authentic alternative for these children. In concise chapters, they address a series of important questions related to the recent ascent of charter schools and the radical restructuring of public education. This essential introduction includes a detailed history of the charter movement, an analysis of the politics and economics driving the movement, documentation of actual student outcomes, and alternative images of transforming public education to serve all children.

Author Biography

Michael Fabricant is a professor at the Hunter College School of Social Work and executive officer of the Ph.D. Program in Social Welfare. Michelle Fine is a distinguished professor of Social Psychology, Women's Studies, and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
An Introduction to the Landscape of Charter Reform	p. 1
The Rise of the Charter School Movement	p. 2
Charter Schools, Public Education, and the Front Line of a Contested Political Terrain	p. 5
Charters in the History of Educational Choice	p. 7
What Is at Stake?	p. 8
The Structure of the Book	p. 9
The Promise: The Genesis of Expectation and the Challenge of Charter Reform	p. 12
The Luster and Contribution of Exemplar Charter Schools	p. 14
A History of Charters in Three Movements	p. 17
The Policy Landscape: Commitments and Variation	p. 21
The Charter Landscape	p. 21
Policy Dimensions: Are Charter Schools Public Institutions?	p. 23
Charters, the Marketplace, and a Theory of Change	p. 26
The Appeal of Charters to Dominant Economic Interests: Monetizing Public Education	p. 27
The Question of Money and Corruption	p. 31
Scaling up Reform Through a Network of Charters: The Tradeoffs of Efficiency-and Economic Advantage	p. 32
Parents' Search for Alternatives to a System That Has Disinvested	p. 33
The Tension Between Promise and Evidence	p. 37
The Promise-Evidence Gap	p. 37
Charters and the Promise of Equity	p. 45
Charter School Dropouts, Pushouts, and Graduation Rates: Why Do We Know So Little?	p. 48
The Effect of Charters on Parent Involvement	p. 52
The Promise of Charter Innovation as a Pathway to Improving Public Education	p. 54
Teacher Experience and Stability as Predicates for Innovation	p. 58
Summary	p. 59
Interlocking Power and the Deregulation of Public Education	p. 61
The Influence of Wealth on Public Policy	p. 62
The State and Philanthropy	p. 63
The Charter Campaign and Political Mobilization of the Private Sector: The Case of New York State	p. 66
Charter Schools and the Maximization of Economic Gain: Profiting from the Privatization of Public Schools	p. 68
The Slippery Question of Profit and the Consolidation of Power	p. 69
Partnership and Profit in the Game of Educational Privatization	p. 75
Claiming Market Share: Strategic Organizing of the Charter Campaign	p. 77
Collateral Damage: The Loss of Accountability	p. 85
Reflections on Politics, Economics, and Ideology	p. 86
"Crisis": A Moment for Dispossession and Profit	p. 88
In a Landscape of Inequality: Whose Crisis Is It Anyway?	p. 90
After the Floods: Charter Growth in New Orleans	p. 91
Building an Education Renaissance: Chicago and Charter Education	p. 95
Declaring "Crisis": School Closings and Charter Openings in New York City	p. 98
A Geography and Archeology of Dispossession: Tracking the Policies and Their Impact	p. 100
Making a Science of Dispossession: Focus on Testing, Ignore Dropout	p. 102
The Dropout Epidemic	p. 104
Conclusion	p. 106
Reclaiming "Public": Deepening National Commitments to Public Investment and Public Innovation	p. 108
New Jersey: The Budget Crisis and Public Education	p. 108
The Binary Tradeoffs of Charter Policy	p. 111
Provocative Images of Public Innovation	p. 115
Toward a New Consensus: The Increasing Call for Investment to Spur Innovation and Foster Effective Schooling	p. 117
Reimagining and Reinvesting in a Public Education	p. 126
Conclusion	p. 130
References	p. 131
Index	p. 143
About The Authors	p. 153
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