John Arena examines the more than two-decade struggle to privatize public schools in Newark, New Jersey—a conflict that is raging in cities across the country. Arena’s book Expelling Public Schools reveals the political rise of Cory Booker and Ras Baraka and what this particular case study illuminates about contemporary post-civil rights Black politics. Here, Arena is joined in conversation with David Forrest.



John (Jay) Arena is associate professor of sociology at CUNY’s College of Staten Island. Arena is author of Expelling Public Schools: How Antiracist Politics Enable School Privatization in Newark ([ Ссылка ]) and Driven from New Orleans: How Nonprofits Betray Public Housing and Promote Privatization ([ Ссылка ]) .



David Forrest is associate professor of politics at Oberlin College. He is author of A Voice but No Power: Organizing for Social Justice in Minneapolis ([ Ссылка ]) .



Works and scholars referenced:


Adolph Reed Jr. (Stirrings in the Jug ([ Ссылка ]) )


David M. Kotz (The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism ([ Ссылка ]) )


Cedric Johnson


Frances Fox Piven (Challenging Authority ([ Ссылка ]) )


Jane McAlevey (No Shortcuts ([ Ссылка ]) )


Preston H. Smith II (Racial Democracy and the Black Metropolis ([ Ссылка ]) )


Sharon Kurtz (Workplace Justice ([ Ссылка ]) )


Marc Doussard and Greg Schrock (Justice at Work ([ Ссылка ]) )


Kristen Buras (Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space ([ Ссылка ]) )


Touré Reed (Toward Freedom ([ Ссылка ]) )


Alf Gunvald Nilsen and Laurence Cox (We Make Our Own History ([ Ссылка ]) )


Colin Barker, Laurence Cox, John Krinsky, and Alf Gunvald Nilsen, editors (Marxism and Social Movements ([ Ссылка ]) )


Rosa Luxemburg (Rosa Luxemburg Speaks ([ Ссылка ]) )


Chris Maisano (“What Does Revolution Mean in the 21st Century?”, Jacobin ([ Ссылка ]) )


Mark R. Beissinger (The Revolutionary City ([ Ссылка ]) )


People and organizations referenced:


Cory Booker


Chris Christie


Ras Baraka


Newark’s downtown Teachers Village complex


Sharpe James


Cami Anderson


Christopher Cerf


Randi Weingarten


Albert Shanker


Karen Lewis


Al Moussab


Newark Education Workers


This episode was recorded in September 2023.



Expelling Public Schools: How Antiracist Politics Enable School Privatization in Newark ([ Ссылка ]) is available from University of Minnesota Press.


"Expelling Public Schools offers a fascinating look into the racial politics of corporate school reform in Newark Public Schools. John Arena takes a long view—just over two decades—and examines the reform movements and countermovements in the district from the top down and the bottom up. In assessing corporate school reform efforts under mayors Cory Booker and Ras Baraka, this deeply researched book illuminates the mechanisms that maintain educational inequality."
—Rand Quinn, author of Class Action: Desegregation and Diversity in San Francisco Schools


"It is rare to encounter a work that treats actually existing Black life, an approach best articulated by Cedric Johnson, to critically address contemporary Black urban regimes. Thoughtful, careful, and incisive, Expelling Public Schools does just that. In this moment when antiracism (and surface critiques of antiracism) is rife, John Arena’s work provides a wonderful tonic."
—Lester Spence, author of Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics

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