Choosing Equality: School Choice, the Constitution, and Civil Society

Portada
Rowman & Littlefield, 2012 M01 1 - 284 páginas
America is now in the second generation of debate on school choice. The first was prompted by the provocative voucher proposal conceived by Milton Friedman in 1955 and brought into the mainstream by Chubb and Moe's seminal book Politics, Markets, and American Schools (Brookings, 1990). It introduced a pure market model in which schools would be publicly financed but privately operated. While opponents continue to contend that choice will lead to the demise of public education, the weakening of civil society, and the fostering of separate and unequal systems of education, Joseph P. Viteritti argues that these long-held assertions must give way to present realities. The rich and diverse experience we have had with magnet schools, controlled choice, inter-district choice, charter schools, privately funded vouchers, and public vouchers in Milwaukee and Cleveland provides a solid basis for crafting a choice policy that enhances the educational opportunities of children whose needs are not being met by the present system of public education. Drawing on his background as a political scientist, legal scholar, and education practitioner, Viteritti starts his book with the promise articulated in the landmark Brown decision of 1954. After reviewing a variety of policy initiatives enacted to promote educational opportunity, he finds that the nation has fallen short of providing decent schooling for its most disadvantaged children, and in so doing has delayed the movement toward social and political equality. Viteritti does not contend that choice in the form of charter schools or vouchers for the poor is a solution to racial inequality, but he believes that these forms of choice can move the country in the proper direction. He insists that the nation cannot pretend to have a serious commitment to the goal of educational equality as long as choice is available only to those with the private means to afford it.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

Oebating Choice
1
Who Wants Choice?
5
Reasonable 0oubts
9
The Case for Choice
11
The Constitution and Civil Society
16
What Follows
21
Oefining Equality
23
Browns Promise
25
Fitst Principles
118
Constitutional Tensions
126
Still A Limited Freedom
143
Religion and the Common School
145
From Pluralism to Patrimony
146
From Separation to Secularization
156
State Constitutional Law
168
Politics and Law
178

False Starts
28
Still Separate and Unequal
49
The Salience of Choice
53
Public School Choice
57
Charter Schools
64
Limits of Government Action
77
Public Schools and Private Schools
80
The Relevance of Catholic Schools
82
Politics of Choice
86
Local Uprisings
92
Lessons to Be Learned
113
Equality as Religious Freedom
117
Education Choice and Civil Society
180
Americas Unfinished Assignment
183
Growing Oemocracy
190
Liberating the Poor
197
Church State and Civil Society
207
Choosing Equality
209
Premises
213
Principles
219
Final Thoughts
223
Notes
225
Index
275
Derechos de autor

Otras ediciones - Ver todas

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (2012)

Joseph P. Viteritti is the Blanche D. Blank Professor of Public Policy at Hunter College, CUNY. He previously served as special assistant to the chancellor of schools in NewYork and as senior adviser to superintendents in Boston and Chicago. He has written widely on education policy and governance and recently served as executive director of the Commission on School Governance in NewYork, for which these papers were commissioned.

Información bibliográfica