Mayors in the Middle: Politics, Race, and Mayoral Control of Urban Schools

by Wilbur C. Rich (Editor), Jeffrey R. Henig (Editor)

Desperate to jump-start the reform process in America's urban schools, politicians, scholars, and school advocates are looking increasingly to mayors for leadership. But does a stronger mayoral role represent bold institutional change with real potential to improve big-city schools, or just the latest in the copycat world of school reform du jour ? Is it democratic? Why have efforts to put mayors in charge so often generated resistance along racial dividing lines? Public debate and scholarly analysis have shied away from confronting such issues head-on. Mayors in the Middle brings together, for students of education policy and urban politics as well as scholars and school advocates, the most thoughtful and original analyses of the promise and limitations of mayoral takeovers of schools.


Reflecting on the experience of six cities--Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Washington, D.C.--ten of the nation's leading experts on education politics tackle the question of whether putting mayors in charge is a step in the right direction. Through the case studies and the wide-ranging essays that follow and build upon them, the contributors--Stefanie Chambers, Jeffrey R. Henig, Kenneth J. Meier, Jeffrey Mirel, Marion Orr, John Portz, Wilbur C. Rich, Dorothy Shipps, and Clarence N. Stone--begin the process of answering questions critical to the future of inner-city children, the prospects for urban revitalization, and the shape of American education in the years to come.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little more in depth than Cuban and Usdan's Powerful Reforms with Shallow Roots and includes case studies of a couple of systems (Detroit, Washington, D.C.) that don't often make a sustained appearance in the mayoral reform literature as well as case studies of the usual suspects (Chicago, Baltimore, Boston).

(Henig's chapter about Washington, D.C. reforms and issue definition is particularly good.)

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's be frank: this is a book you read for class. With discussion, it might be interesting. It's written in dense, academic prose and is boring as hell to read, though the actual ideas could be very interesting presented differently, though in no way was the author's intention to write a book for any old reader — no matter how interested in education — to happen across and pick up.