First, You Kill the Schools: Behind the Racist Attack on Public School Education
Just about every major city in the United States with sizable nonwhite populations is experiencing a crisis with its public-school system.
This is not accidental, says our guest, Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni, associate professor of curriculum studies and policy sociology at Wayne State University and co-director of the Detroit Data and Democracy Project. Education policy, he says, is aligned with and reflects a historically racist philosophy and mindset that, despite pronouncements to the contrary, oppose equality and democracy.
Add to this, Pedroni says, is the “threat” and “inconvenience” these populations pose to the power elite. Not only are they increasing in number, but they’re living in areas marked for planned “turnarounds.”
Pedroni explains the connection between the fight for public-school education and the parallel struggle for grassroots political power.