City Schools and City Politics

By Lana Stein, John Portz, Robin R. Jones

Educational reform is one of the most critical issues facing our cities, but some cities are better at it than others. To explain why, this book relates education to politics, showing how the "whole village" can be mobilized to better educate tomorrow's citizens.

City Schools and City Politics is based on an eleven-city NSF study of civic capacity and urban education. As participants in that study, the authors conducted research in three rustbelt cities that have lost much of their tax base and have legacies of machine politics. They analyzed the ways in which government, business, and community leaders create, or fail to create, civic support for public education, focusing on why certain cities show greater initiative than others in addressing these problems.

The authors reveal that, of the cities examined, Pittsburgh has made the most strides in educational reform, followed by Boston, while St. Louis has consistently lagged behind. Their observations show that cross-sectorial coalitions are essential for bringing about change; that organizational arrangements in the business community and their relationship to local government affect whether there is the capacity to address school reform; that leadership is critical in bringing about change; and that municipal institutions and culture influence a city's ability to take action.

Packed with empirical data and analysis, City Schools and City Politics demonstrates the citywide and long-term character of successful efforts to reform public schools, relating education to the priorities of municipal governments and describing the conditions under which reform becomes possible. It extends regime theory to public education and shows that education policy is inextricably linked with urban political life and is an issue of real concern to political science.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700609806
• ISBN13: 9780700609802
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A MUST READ for anyone interested in education reform

I am the founder of St. Louis, Missouri's first charter school - the St. Louis Charter School... This book is an invaluable resource on national education and urban trends. It is packed with a wealth of data on schools, student, and cities. Once you have read the book, you will be armed with real numbers, case studies and examples to use in planning and promoting your own charter school or engaging in conversations with others about education reform and the history of public education in America.