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This article traces the state takeover and neoliberal reconstruction of a mid-size urban school district in the California Bay Area. Aligning with research on social networks in school reform, it identifies three organizational nodes of power operating within the takeover and post-takeover landscape: venture-philanthropic capital, the Teach for America organization, and a local intermediary organization that acted as a hub for the capital and labor flowing from these organizations. Their story demonstrates the concrete ways in which an increasingly globalized funding and policy network converged at the district level in order to implement a unified policy agenda. The network's role in school politics, real estate, and gentrification provides a template for the transnational work of school reformers and their role in creating the neoliberal 'global city.'

A paradox exists between capital accumulation and corporate philanthropy: a record number of 'generous' donations and historic levels of social inequality. In education, tech companies are directing significant investments to shape public schools. Many efforts to support Latino boys are aligned with these goals, as interventions aim to prepare students for the 'new economy.' Few studies consider the experiences of high-performing Latino boys in relation to tech companies. This paper examines how the Bay Area tech industry, gentrification, and displacement impact the lives of high-performing Latino boys. We draw from an ethnographic study conducted by the first author in the Bay Area of Northern California. This paper shows the way students develop an understanding and actively protest their racialized predicament (i.e. resistance logics), while learning skills to acquire jobs in the tech economy that often appears to perpetuate this racialization (i.e. market logics).

This article describes how the historic destruction of the Chavez Ravine neighborhood in Los Angeles--to build Dodger Stadium--paved the way for students to understand changes in their own neighborhood. Through slideshows, poems, newscast transcripts, field trips, and classroom activities, students navigated the complex history of Chavez Ravine to learn about gentrification, eminent domain, and urban renewal and to dispel the idea that oppression always happens at a distance. They learned how the residents of Chavez Ravine did not go silently from their homes but fought back. The author notes that, as a language arts teacher, her duty is to teach students to read and write effectively, but one cannot write without learning how to think about the world, to step back from individual pain and ask questions and find patterns. (Contains 4 resources.) [This is the second of a two-part article on "Stealing Home," a unit about ways the homes of people of color and poor people have been stolen through "race riots" and urban renewal. The first part, "Burned Out of Homes and History: Unearthing the Silenced Voices of the Tulsa Race Riot," was published in the fall 2012 issue of "Rethinking Schools," and found at EJ987597.]

Reactions to the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and debate over the president's replacement nomination, Judge John Roberts, Jr., of the D.C. Circuit, dominated this summer's Supreme Court recess. Subsequently, after Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's death on September 3, 2005, President Bush nominated Roberts for the chief justice slot. In the 2004-2005 term, O'Connor provided the deciding vote in many of the 13 capital cases the Court decided, and her opinions have been described as a kind of "bridge" over the wide gulf between the Court's left and right factions in this area. In this article, the author reviews some of the landmark cases handled by the Supreme Court under the jurisprudence of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The author also provides his views on some of the Supreme Court's decisions. (Contains 21 notes).

Biodiversity conservation requires space where conservation measures are implemented for a desired purpose. Setting land aside for conservation has been widely applied, while novel conservation modes (private–public partnerships, private multipurpose land management) may be fundamental to achieve conservation goals. We perform an economic analysis of the cost development for two conservation options in California, in‐fee and easements, from 1970 to today. We find that in‐fee options have lower costs than easements in the long run. While there are high costs of purchase for in‐fee, ultimately they even‐out or generate profits. Costs of easements continue growing exponentially overtaking costs of purchase. Sensitivity analysis shows increases in purchasing prices and opportunity costs positively influencing conservation costs, while increasing interest rates negatively influence them. The results suggest that easements are not yet an economically viable alternative for in‐fee conservation purchases. Our analysis is a first step to assess economic viability of choosing easements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]