The Golden Ticket: Gentrification, Charter Schools, and a Parallel Public School System in Hoboken, New Jersey

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Impacts of School Choice

Abstract

This case study of Hoboken, New Jersey examines how the combination of district school choice and charter schools has resulted in a parallel public school system in a gentrified urban community and how this affects school-aged children in public housing. The findings show that neoliberal school choice has allowed school segregation to be maintained. Relying heavily on social and cultural capital to make their decisions, parents from public housing prefer their neighborhood school while gentry parents seek “The Golden Ticket”—admission to a charter school. While other studies of gentrification and education explore the perspective of the gentry, this research establishes empirically why parents in public housing make the educational choices that they make.

Author

• Molly V. Makris, Guttman Community College - CUNY