Roosevelt House is honored to present a conversation with Hunter College Professor of Public Policy Joseph P. Viteritti about his new book Radical Dreamers: Race, Choice, and the Failure of American Education (Oxford). An authoritative history of the school choice movement, as well as a heartfelt memoir from one of the country’s leading education scholars, Radical Dreamers chronicles school choice from its idealistic beginnings to what Viteritti calls the “costly” and “unaccountable” programs of today. The author will be in conversation with MSNBC political analyst, and former Roosevelt House Public Policy Program director, Basil Smikle Jr.
In the 1990s, school choice emerged as an effort by a coalition of Black activists and conservative lawmakers seeking to offer economically disadvantaged students of color a way out of failing schools. Viteritti, a supporter of targeted choice and charter schools shows, however, that today’s school choice movement—championed by Republicans, conservatives, and faith-based organizations—increasingly focuses on providing public funding to students attending private and religious schools, regardless of family income. This, he notes, comes at the expense of addressing the needs of the most vulnerable students.
Seventy-one years after Brown v. Board of Education declared education a “right” to be made available to all “on equal terms,” race and class sadly remain—as Viteritti writes—the most reliable predictors of educational achievement in America. In Radical Dreamers, Viteritti reviews a long history of failed policies, and urges readers to have an honest conversation about education, and where we have gone wrong.
Compelling and immersive, Radical Dreamers delivers the powerful story of how a group of passionate educators conceived of, and enacted, school choice. In so doing, the book provides needed context to the nation’s long struggle for every child to receive a good education, and how that goal has been undermined by advocates on both the left and right, Democrats and Republicans alike.
Featuring:
Joseph P. Viteritti is the Thomas Hunter Professor of Public Policy at Hunter College and was the founding faculty chair of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Program. He has published a dozen books, including Choosing Equality: School Choice, the Constitution, and Civil Society; The Pragmatist: Bill de Blasio’s Quest to Save the Soul of New York; and Summer in the City: John Lindsay, New York, and the American Dream. His numerous articles have appeared in scholarly journals, law reviews, and popular outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post and the Nation. He gave expert testimony in the landmark Supreme Court case Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002), and was cited by the Court in Espinosa v. Montana (2020), both of which pertained to the issue of school choice. He has served as an advisor to the Chancellor of Schools in New York City and the school superintendents of Boston and San Francisco.
Dr. Basil Smikle Jr. is the Director of the M.S. program in nonprofit management in the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University. As an MSNBC political analyst, he regularly shares his insights on national media outlets. With 20 years in higher education and 30 years devoted to public service, his expertise spans civic engagement, nonprofit advocacy and communications, electoral politics, and education policy. He is a recipient of the New York Urban League Community Service Award; the Bronx Branch NAACP W.E.B. Dubois Scholar Award; and a Proclamation from the New York City Council in recognition of his commitment to public service and education equity. From 2021 to 2024, Smikle served as Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Program.
