Here’s another book for teachers, educators, and anyone who wants to better understand the role of schools in the perpetuation of structural racism: CUTTING SCHOOL
Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education by Noliwe Rooks (The New Press 2017).
Cutting School dives into a contradiction at the root of the school struggles troubling society today: the abiding and courageous press of Black parents for a full and decent education for their children as a pathway to authentic citizenship and real equality, and the relentless grasp of private interests and profiteers to get their hands on the largest possible share of the billions of dollars invested in public education.
A fundamental question haunts every page: Is education a public good or a private enterprise, a product to be sold at the marketplace like a hammer or a laptop, or a universal human right, a commodity or an entitlement each person secures at birth?
Noliwe Rooks stares the question down, and follows up: Will America ever decide to educate the children of formerly enslaved people (or for that matter the children of First Nations peoples or the children of immigrants from poor nations) or will it find new and deceptive ways to cling to its shameful tradition of apartheid schooling?
With this smart book and wise intervention Noliwe Rooks will change the way you understand the challenges and possibilities ahead.
Bill Ayers 