“ Excluded by Choice offers well-researched insights on the need for inclusive education practices through its exploration of the intersection of racism and ableism in Chicago’s charter schools. The book also provides a critical assessment on the role of market mechanisms on school policies.”
—Education Review
“Waitoller highlights the challenges parents and children face when dealing with the intersection of racism and ableism in the process of school choice.”
—Journal of Education Policy
“Waitoller offers a nuanced portrayal of charter schools grounded in a critique of the school choice movement, and appropriately places charter schools in the neoliberal, market-driven reforms that are spreading around the nation.”
—Alfredo J. Artiles, Ryan C. Harris Professor of Special Education, Arizona State University
“Only now have educators faced the complex struggles and hopes of Black and Latinx families advocating for an education that enables their children with disabilities. Federico Waitoller provides a complete picture of the interaction among school choice, urban histories, and educational stratification within a critical study of ableist racism. Told from the perspective of parents fighting for their children’s educational rights, Excluded by Choice neither asks easy questions nor offers facile answers. The reader walks away with a humanizing story about the critical choices parents make in imperfect conditions they did not, by and large, choose. People satisfied with a complacent explanation for difficult problems should look elsewhere. Those craving a thoughtful analysis of how our school system treats Black and Latinx students with disabilities, look no further.”
—Zeus Leonardo, professor and associate dean of education, University of California, Berkeley
“The school choice debates have been raging for decades. But in that time, few scholars have offered the nuanced insights that Federico Waitoller does in this careful and considered book. Examining the impacts of choice on some of our most vulnerable students, Excluded by Choice represents a major contribution to our collective knowledge on this contentious issue.”
—Christopher Lubienski, professor of education policy, Indiana University
“School choice policies are largely premised on the freedom and power they afford to parents, particularly Black, Latinx, poor parents, and parents of children with disabilities. In this carefully argued and researched book, Waitoller demonstrates that for parents living at the intersection of racism, poverty, and ableism, the reality is that school choice does not live up to its promises. Waitoller challenges policymakers, charter school operators, and advocates to take seriously and to address the lived experiences of parents and students who face intersectional discrimination in traditional public and marketized schools.”
—Janelle Scott, Robert C. and Mary Catherine Birgeneau Distinguished Chair in Educational Disparities, UC Berkeley
