Keeping US Education Segregated Is a Highly Profitable Business for Some

Protestors demonstrate as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on 'A Conversation On Empowering Parents' on September 28, 2017 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. DeVos was met by protestors both outside the venue and inside during her remarks. (Photo: Paul Marotta / Getty Images)Protesters demonstrate as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum on “A Conversation On Empowering Parents” on September 28, 2017, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. DeVos was met by protesters both outside the venue and inside during her remarks. (Photo: Paul Marotta / Getty Images)

Why are schools in the United States more segregated than they have been since the mid-20th century? In Cutting School, a book that Naomi Klein calls “astounding” and Bill Ayers calls “smart” and “wise,” Noliwe Rooks delivers a timely indictment of the corporate takeover and dismantling of public education. Order your copy today by making a donation to Truthout!

Noliwe Rooks argues that educational apartheid has existed throughout the history of the United States, and continues to this day. Not only is this segregated education an abomination, but it also has been a revenue source for white school districts, entrepreneurs and even philanthropy. Rooks sees hope for change in the resistance of young students who are demanding accountability.

Mark Karlin: How has “educational apartheid” changed, and how is it still the same in the United States?

Noliwe Rooks: When I first thought about writing Cutting School I planned to begin in the 21st century. I knew that the racial and economic segregation I was seeing in this century wasn’t new, but I thought that the role that philanthropies, corporations, business leaders and politicians played — in shaping how and why so many of our children today attend schools that are overwhelmingly segregated and that deliver idiosyncratic, often experimental educational forms that are very different from those wealthy students enjoy, and with teachers and curriculum and disciplinary methods that could only be found in poor schools — was somehow a sign of our particular time. I didn’t understand that there was a disturbing continuity.

Noliwe Rooks. (Photo: Cornell Marketing)Noliwe Rooks. (Photo: Cornell Marketing)However, as I completed the research and…

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