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.
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