First published 2015
Dale Russakoff examines what happened when Mark Zuckerberg promised $100 million to transform Newark's failing schools. The Facebook founder made his pledge on Oprah's show alongside Mayor Cory Booker and Governor Chris Christie, who declared Newark would become a model of educational excellence. Russakoff traces how their reform plans collided with entrenched local interests protecting a billion dollar system that had enriched everyone except Newark's students. The author follows Zuckerberg and his wife as they navigate the political fallout from their donation. She documents how Superintendent Cami Anderson closed or redesigned over a third of the city's schools while facing fierce grassroots opposition from politicians and union leaders. Russakoff profiles teachers and principals working in classrooms where students face extreme poverty and violence. Her reporting captures the broader forces reshaping American education, from celebrity politics and big philanthropy to charter school expansion and economic inequality.
Genres: politics, education, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-commentary
Setting: Newark
Period: 21st-century
246 pages · Hardcover · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt