Case for Reparations and Grassroots Organization

Article Review Topic: “Reparations for Black Communities through Educational Reform”

Lipman, P. (2017). The landscape of education “reform” in Chicago: Neoliberalism

meets a grassroots movement. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25, 54-54.

Lipman (2017) calls for systemic reform of public schools as part of reparations for social/racial injustice visited upon the black community. The main focus of the article is that Chicago’s neoliberal education policy is racialized state violence against the black community, and that education is the primary field in which reparations need to begin to be made.

The author’s conclusions appear to follow logically from the premises and appear to be validly supported by the evidence. The evidence in this case consists of literature and data collected over the course of two decades on Chicago’s education policy and how it detrimentally affects black neighborhoods. The evidence does seem to point to a need for reform in the education policy of the city.

My thoughts on the article are that education reform is still very much a hot-button issue in the United States, especially in light of the recent protests against police brutality and systemic racism. One proposed solution is to provide reparations to black communities through education reform. This article examines the landscape of education reform in Chicago and the potential for using this platform to provide reparations to black communities. The author argues that neoliberal education reform policies have largely failed to address the needs of black students and instead have perpetuated inequality. However, the author also notes that there is potential for education reform to be used as a tool for reparations if it is based in grassroots organizing and community control. In conclusion, the author argues that education reform has the potential to be a powerful force for good if it is rooted in anti-racist principles and focuses on meeting the needs of black students. Overall, I would say that this is a good article to include in my research, as it offers some key insight into how reform should take place and why it should be based on grassroots, i.e., community-based, involvement—which is to say, a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down approach. The black community should take ownership of education rather than be passive recipients of a city-based policy that does not benefit the black community at all.