Twenty-First-Century Jim Crow Schools: The Impact of Charters on Public Education

How charter schools have taken hold in three cities—and why parents, teachers, and community members are fighting back

This concise yet powerful volume examines the rise of charters in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York, exploring the specific conditions that spurred their proliferation. Raynard Sanders (New Orleans), David Stovall (Chicago), and Terrenda White (New York City) show how these schools—private institutions, usually established in poor or working-class African American and Latinx communities—promote competition instead of collaboration and are chiefly driven by financial interests. Sanders, Stovall, and White also reveal how charters position themselves as “public” to secure tax money but use their private status to hide data about enrollment and salaries. Furthermore, the authors document the lasting consequences of charter school expansion, including the displacement of experienced African American teachers; the rise of a rigid, militarized pedagogy; and community disruption.