Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement

Abstract

No one wants to hear that they are working in vain. Truly no American wants to hear that they are working in vain since one of the salient qualities of American culture is getting things done. Americans pride themselves on their efficiency and "can do" spirit. Thus, Jean Anyon's Radical Possibilities is unsettling in its claim that urban education reform is doomed to failure. This does not sit well with teachers, administrators, parents, community members, education researchers, or the general public. After all, the public has invested billions of dollars in education, and it is not unreasonable to expect something for that investment. Unlike conservative arguments about the folly of education spending, Anyon places the foci of educational problems where they rightly belong-the macroeconomic and sociopolitical contexts that create policies that make it virtually impossible to improve schools in poor and low-income communities. Anyon argues that two major forces-federal policies and metropolitan inequities-are the primary contributors to the conditions that plague public schools. This assertion challenges commonly held beliefs that the reason urban schools are failing is because the children are poor, the parents do not care, the teachers are ill prepared, and the funding is too meager. For Anyon, "macroeconomic mandates continually trump urban education and school reform" (p. 2). Thus, education reformers find themselves like Sisyphus, rolling a boulder uphill. Anyon points out that national policies that may seem far from the classroom have devastating impacts on the quality of students' (and their families') lives. For example, policies, that maintain an exceedingly low minimum wage, force people to live in poverty or to work so much that the quality of their family life is severely compromised. This point is reinforced in the work of sociologist, Harriet Presser (2003) who argues the demand for round the clock goods and services requires a 24 hour, 7 days a week