Race, Schools, & Hope: African Americans and School Choice after Brown. Lisa M. Stulberg (Teachers College Press).

Race, Schools, & Hope: African Americans and School Choice after Brown. Lisa M. Stulberg (Teachers College Press). Plodding through this book can be a maddening exercise, what with its paeans to progressive icons (Cornel West! Howard Zinn!), its disdain for "White, Republican, conservative choice supporters and funders," and, well, its obsession with race. But like paying taxes, plodding through it is a painful experience that behooves you nonetheless. For the reader will learn about the historical roots of African American enthusiasm for school choice (embodied most fully by Black Alliance for Educational Options founder Howard Fuller), encountering an intellectual history from Black Power to New York's community control wars to the movement for black independent schools to today's arguments over vouchers and charter schools. In this history Stulberg sees signs that black supporters of choice aren't so much giving up on the public schools as giving voice to their hopes for a better education system. Certain (white) school-choice advocates argue that theirs is the "next civil rights movement." They should read this book to understand the full implications of that statement. They may or may not like what they learn.