The Coup D’état of the New Orleans Public Schools Money, Power, and the Illegal Takeover of a Public School System

"The struggle over the fate and future of public education has played out with notable intensity in New Orleans, Louisiana, never more significantly than in recent years as NOLA has become-post-Hurricane Katrina-the laboratory for a thoroughgoing corporate takeover of public education. In this compelling account the educator/activist/scholar Raynard Sanders documents the treacherous alliance that formed between old-school white supremacists and modern-day corporate raiders eager to get their grasping hands on what they perversely perceive as the 'public education market.' The Coup D'état of the New Orleans Public Schools illustrates the case in compelling detail, and shows us precisely what's at stake: education as a basic human right versus schooling as a product for sale in the marketplace; democracy as a vital force for human development or the veritable erasure of the public; a step forward in the abiding and courageous press of Black parents for a full and decent education for their children as a pathway to authentic equality versus a further continuance of the shameful American tradition of apartheid schooling. This is a necessary book."-William Ayers, Author of several books on education including Teaching with Conscience in an Imperfect World, To Teach, and Teaching Toward Freedom