Expelling Public Schools: How Antiracist Politics Enable School Privatization in Newark

By: John Arena

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Synopsis: 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.