The private corporations and networks that profit by taking existing public goods and, with the help of politicians, transferring them into private hands, rapidly sped up their takeover of our local public school system this year. Perhaps that’s because it was within the last two years that the community started to catch on and organize against it.
In late February, legislators introduced House Bill 1423, which would create the “Indianapolis Public Education Corporation,” or a Board of nine unelected people to control all transportation, facilitate and school performance systems for our city’s almost 45,000 students. Instead of being elected—and thus accountable to the people—the Board’s makeup would be solely at the Mayor’s discretion. After Gov. Braun signed HB 1423, it became law on March 4.
The corporation doesn’t include a single educator or educational scholar. Instead, it’s made up of folks like Patricia Castañeda of Key Bank and John Hammond of the Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. Those with “educational credentials” are David Harris, one of the co-founders of the Mind Trust. Given that charter schools have, for decades, been mired in controversy and corruption all while not following up on any of their promises in any substantial way, it’s remarkable that they’re still touting the same lies and getting away with it… at least for now.
The tools to fight back
The struggle isn’t over, however, and the Indy Liberation Store is celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a week of sales on our comprehensive selection of books on educational policy and radical educational theory and practice. Fighting requires having a precise understanding and analysis of the problems at hand (educational policy) as well as the resources to creatively and collectively address them (radical educational theory/practice).
If you want a better grasp of the forces we’re up against, where they come from, they’re real agendas, and how we can, have, and do create real community-based schools that care for and raise critically-minded children, stop by the Indy Liberation Store or check out the catalogue on our website to order for pick-up or delivery. For this week only, we’re offering 20 percent off a variety of titles. If you come in no April 25 in celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, we’re upping it to 25 percent off! Examples of titles include but are not limited to:
Critical educational policy
- Can Educators Make a Difference?, edited by Paul R. Carr, David Zygier, et. al.
- Charter School Report Card, by Shawgi Tell
- Courageous Conversations About Race, edited by Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis W. Linton
- Hispanic Children and Youth in the United States, by Angela Carrasquillo
- Immigration and Schooling, edited by Touorizou Hervé Somé and Pierre W. Orelus
- Latino Education in the United States, edited by Victoria-María MacDonald
- Lessons of Hope: How to Fix our Schools, by Joel Klein
- The Nature and Limits of Standards-Based Assessment and Reform, by Sandra Mathison and E. Wayne Ross
- Pathways to Privatization in Education, by Joseph Murphy, Scott W. Gilmer, et. al.
- Policy and Research in Education: A Critical Pedagogy for Educational Leadership, by Curry S. Malott
- The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism, by Debra Van Ausdale
- Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice (3rd. ed.), by Maurianne Adams and Lee Anne Bell
- Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, by Dianne Ravitch
- Students of Color and the Achievement Gap, by Richard R. Valencia
- Understanding Neoliberal Rule in K-12 Schools, edited by Mark Abendroth and Brad J. Porfilioell
- Who Decides Who Becomes a Teacher? Schools of Education as Sites of Resistance, edited by Julie Gorlewski and Eve Tuck
Radical educational theory and practice
- A History of Education for the Many, by Curry S. Malott
- A Voice for Maria Favela: An Adventure in Creative Literacy, by Antonio Leal
- Colonized Schooling Exposed: Progressive Voices for Transformative Educational and Social Change, by Pierre Orelus, Curry Malott, and Romina Pacheco
- Class, Race, and Gender in American Education, by Lois Weis
- Decolonizing Educational Research, by Leigh Patel
- DIY Punk as Education: From Mis-education to Educative Healing, by Rebekah Cordova
- Educating About/for Food Security Through Environmental Education, by Alishia A. Valeri
- Educating Children in Conflict Zones,by Karen Mundy and Sarah Dryden-Peterson
- Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, by Michael Wallace Adams
- Education in Movement Spaces: Standing Rock to Chicago Freedom Square, edited by Alayna Eagle Shield, Django Paris, et. al.
- Educational Potentialities: Collected Talks On Revolutionary Education, Organizing, and Aesthetics, by Tyson E. Lewis
- Encountering Education: Elements for a Marxist Pedagogy, by Derek R. Ford
- Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, by Jarvis R. Givens
- Ideology & Practice in Schooling, edited by Michael Apple and Lois Weiss
- Imagining Education Beyond the Logic of Global Neoliberal Capitalism, edited by Arturo Rodriguez and Kevin R. Magill
- Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education, edited by Derek R. Ford
- Multiculturalism, Dialectical Thought, and Social Justice Pedagogy, by Daniel Ian Rubin
- Pedagogy of Insurrection: From Resurrection to Revolution, by Peter McLaren
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire
- Power, Resistance, and Literacy: Writing for Social Justice, by Julie Gorlewski
- Radical Imagine-Nation: Education and Struggle, edited by Peter McLaren and Suzanne SooHoo
- Radical Voices for Democratic Schooling: Exposing Neoliberal Inequalities, by Pierre Orelus and Curry Malott
- Resegregation as Curriculum: The Meaning of the New Racial Segregation in US Public Schools, by Jerry Rosiek and Kathy Kinslow
- Rethinking Philosophy for Children: Agamben and Education as Pure Means, by Tyson E. Lewis and Igor Jasinski
- Rethinking Social Studies: Critical Pedagogy in Pursuit of Dangerous Citizenship, by E. Wayne Ross
- Revolutionary Education: Theory and Practice for Socialist Organizers, edited by Nino Brown
- Teaching Joe L. Kincheloe, edited by Richelle Brook, Curry Stephenson, et. al.
- The Beautiful Risk of Education, by Gert G.G. Biesta
- Teaching Against Islamophobia, by Joe Kincheloe and Shirley Steinberg
- This Fist Called my Heart: The Peter McLaren Reader, Vol. 1
- Tracks To Infinity: The Peter McLaren Reader, Vol 2
- Unequal by Design: High-Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality, by Wayne Au
- Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, by bell hooks
- Transformative Ethnic Studies in Schools: Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Research, by Christine E. Sleeter and Miguel Zavala
This is just a sampling of the books we have to help us understand what’s happened and how we can fight back. Check out our other books that are included in the education sale on our website or, better, stop in our new storefront at 1619 Prospect St!