Battling corruption in America's public schools / Lydia G. Segal ; with a foreword by James B. Jacobs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Segal, Lydia G., 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public schools--Corrupt practices--Illinois--Chicago--Case studies.

Public schools.

Public schools--Corrupt practices--California--Los Angeles--Case studies.

Public schools--Corrupt practices--New York (State)--New York--Case studies.

Education, Urban--Illinois--Chicago--Case studies.

Education, Urban.

Education, Urban--California--Los Angeles--Case studies.

Education, Urban--New York (State)--New York--Case studies.

Public schools--Corrupt practices.

New York (State)--New York.

California--Los Angeles.

Illinois--Chicago.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xxv, 257 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Northeastern University Press, [2004]

Summary:

Exposes decades of rampant fraud, waste, and abuse in America's largest public school districts, analyzes how the widespread corruption has crippled schools and impeded learning, and offers a bold blueprint for reform.

Contents:

Introduction: Corruption and the Future of America's Great City Schools xix

Part I The Pathology: Laying the Record Bare

1. Public Education as Big Business 3

2. Charting Corruption, Waste, and Abuse 13

3. Where the Money Goes 24

4. The Toll on Education 28

Part II The Remedies Tried: The Frenzied Search for Accountability

5. The Quest for Accountability 41

6. The Centralization Mess 53

Part III The Diagnosis: Getting to the Root Causes

7. Toward a Theory of School Waste and Fraud 63

8. Watching the Pennies but Missing the Millions 73

9. The Cost of Managerial Paralysis 87

10. Creative Noncompliance: Informal Power Networks 101

11. When Anticorruption Machinery Breeds Corruption 109

Part IV The Wrong Medication: How Not to Fix the Problem

12. Lessons from Local Political School Control 119

13. Lessons from Bureaucratic Autonomy 133

14. Lessons from Resistance to Reform 140

Part V The Prescription: How to Fix the Problem

15. Establishing Independent Inspectors General 155

16. Removing the Dominant Coalition 164

17. Restructuring School Districts to Push Power Downward 170

18. The Model of Edmonton, Canada 177

19. Loosened Top-Down Controls and Trust 187.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [229]-249) and index.

ISBN:

1555535844

OCLC:

52085944