Ryan M. Good, PhD ’06, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Co-Director of the Washington Community Scholars’ Center at Eastern Mennonite University in Washington, DC and Katharine Nelson, PhD candidate at the Bloustein School, recently co-authored an article, “With a little help from our friends: private fundraising and public schools in Philadelphia ” in the Journal of Education Policy (February 2020).
In this paper, the authors study fundraising efforts for traditional public schools in Philadelphia by neighborhood-based ‘friends’ groups that have incorporated as independent 501(c)(3)s to support individual schools. They found that the work of these organizations must be understood in the context of gentrifying neighborhoods, and that they reflect the manifestation of inequalities in local capacity described in the shadow state literature.
Dr. Good’s research explores the politics of place, community-based political mobilization, and racialized geographies of inequality, with a specific focus on the implications of marketized education reforms for local communities. Ms. Nelson’s research is at the intersection of real estate, education, and housing, using a spatial-analytical lens to explore inequitable outcomes from planning and policy interventions.