The Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series feat. Dale Russakoff
*This event is by invitation only.
The Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series will feature Dale Russakoff, New Yorker contributor, discussing her new book, “The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
About “The Prize”:
When Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools and to solve the education crisis in every city in America, it looked like a huge win for then-Mayor Cory Booker and Gov. Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved: Newark’s key education players, fiercely protective of their billion-dollar-per-annum system.
Expert journalist Dale Russakoff delivers a story of high ideals and hubris, good intentions and greed, celebrity and street smarts — as reformers face off against entrenched unions, skeptical parents, and bewildered students. The growth of charters forces the hand of Newark’s superintendent Cami Anderson, who closes, consolidates, or redesigns more than a third of the city’s schools — a scenario on the horizon for many urban districts across America. Most moving are Russakoff’s portraits from inside the district’s schools, of home-grown principals and teachers, long stuck in a hopeless system, and often the only real hope for the children of Newark.
“The Prize” is a portrait of a titanic struggle over the future of education for the poorest kids, and a cautionary tale for those who care about the shape of America’s schools.
The Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series will feature Dale Russakoff, New Yorker contributor, discussing her new book, The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).