America is now in the second generation of debate on school choice. The first was prompted by the provocative voucher proposal conceived by Milton Friedman in 1955 and brought into the mainstream by Chubb and Moe's seminal book Politics, Markets, and American Schools (Brookings, 1990). It introduced a pure market model in which schools would be publicly financed but privately operated. While opponents continue to contend that choice will lead to the demise of public education, the weakening of civil society, and the fostering of separate and unequal systems of education, Joseph P. Viteritti argues that these long-held assertions must give way to present realities. The rich and diverse experience we have had with magnet schools, controlled choice, inter-district choice, charter schools, privately funded vouchers, and public vouchers in Milwaukee and Cleveland provides a solid basis for crafting a choice policy that enhances the educational opportunities of children whose needs are not being met by the present system of public education. Drawing on his background as a political scientist, legal scholar, and education practitioner, Viteritti starts his book with the promise articulated in the landmark Brown decision of 1954. After reviewing a variety of policy initiatives enacted to promote educational opportunity, he finds that the nation has fallen short of providing decent schooling for its most disadvantaged children, and in so doing has delayed the movement toward social and political equality. Viteritti does not contend that choice in the form of charter schools or vouchers for the poor is a solution to racial inequality, but he believes that these forms of choice can move the country in the proper direction. He insists that the nation cannot pretend to have a serious commitment to the goal of educational equality as long as choice is available only to those with the private means to afford it.

The presidency of George W. Bush has polarized the church-state debate as never before. The Far Right has been emboldened to use religion to govern, while the Far Left has redoubled its efforts to evict religion from public life entirely. Fewer people on the Right seem to respect the church-state separation, and fewer people on the Left seem to respect religion itself--still less its free exercise in any situation that is not absolutely private. In The Last Freedom, Joseph Viteritti argues that there is a basic tension between religion and democracy because religion often rejects compromise as a matter of principle while democracy requires compromise to thrive. In this readable, original, and provocative book, Viteritti argues that Americans must guard against debasing politics with either antireligious bigotry or religious zealotry. Drawing on politics, history, and law, he defines a new approach to the church-state question that protects the religious and the secular alike.

Challenging much conventional opinion, Viteritti argues that the courts have failed to adequately protect religious minorities, that the rights of the religious are under greater threat than those of the secular, and that democracy exacts greater compromises and sacrifices from the religious than it does from the secular. He takes up a wide range of controversies, including the pledge of allegiance, school prayer, school vouchers, evolution, abortion, stem-cell research, gay marriage, and religious displays on public property.

A fresh and surprising approach to the church-state question, The Last Freedom is squarely aimed at the wide center of the public that is frustrated with the extremes of both the Left and the Right.

Across the River is an eyewitness account of education reforms undertaken in New York City during the ambitious tenure of Frank Macchiarola, who led the school system from 1978 to 1983.  Major issues addressed by Viteritti, a special assistant to the chancellor at the time, include budgetary politics, school finance reform, competency testing, special education, teacher accountability, and desegregation. He also considers the broader dimensions of city politics, retrenchment, intergovernmental relations, and judicial policy making. The problems facing reform appear almost insurmountable. Perhaps most devastating of all, according to the author, is how the conflict of interests among bureaucrats, politicians, unions and the clients supposedly served by all of these players undermines productive measures that could and should be enacted to provide better services to vulnerable populations.

Edited Books

In immersive and authoritative history of the school choice movement--from its idealistic roots among Black activists to the costly unaccountable programs of today.

Radical Dreamers explains the politics behind America’s failure to provide every child with an equal educational opportunity. Focusing on parental choice as a window for understanding our systemic inequality, Viteritti takes issue with activists on both the left and the right: the former who would deny such opportunities to poor parents, the latter who are altering policies to dilute such opportunities and undermine their progressive redistributive effects.

In a book that cuts across the genres of history, public policy, constitutional law, biography, even memoir, Viteritti takes the reader on an intellectual journey through ideas that have shaped public policy for more than a half-century. Along the way, he engages a collection of friends and colleagues who have been among the most influential actors in American education, including: Derrick Bell, James Coleman, John Coons, Ronald Edmonds, Howard Fuller, and Diane Ravitch.