Schools for Sale

Schools for Sale uses an innovative blend of methods—photographic essays and case studies—to tell a powerful story of what happens to schools after they have been closed. The book illuminates the role of institutional racism in shaping the past, present, and future of Philadelphia neighborhoods, revealing how decades of systemic disinvestment in public education undermined essential community institutions. The story is a sobering one, but the authors’ focus on six schools, each with a different trajectory, allows for a sophisticated analysis of both the harms done to communities by school closings and the potential for reclaiming schools as public goods.

“This deeply intelligent, emotionally telling story of Philadelphia schools’ closings and resale offers innovative writing and photographs of these once-vaulted community institutions, before and after the surrender of their abandoned premises to private uses unaffordable to minority-race neighborhood residents. Four authors provide deeply-researched portraits of this important, understudied form of urban disinvestment and exclusionary reinvestment.”

Julia McWilliams is the codirector and faculty member of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Compete or Close: Traditional Neighborhood Schools under Pressure.

Ariel H. Bierbaum is associate professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland.

Amy J. Bach is associate professor of literacy/biliteracy studies at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Elaine Simon is an urban anthropologist, retired as codirector of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.