Depictions of school choice offering greater individual and local autonomy are widespread, yet they sit uneasily with portrayals of such policies within African-American political discourse. This article analyses the ways in which opposition to publicly funded private school vouchers has been used as a cue to signal solidaristic ties to the African-American electorate. School choice is highly racialized. Black politicians have been known to campaign against school choice policies by presenting them as tools of White outsiders to break up and divide the Black community. Although opinion polls have indicated that a majority of African-American voters support education vouchers, in a campaign context school choice policies can be framed through the prisms of racial authenticity and community control. Using data drawn from interviews with political operatives and archival research in Newark, New Jersey, this article demonstrates that school choice can paradoxically be rendered as a policy of community disempowerment.

提供更大的个人和地方自治的学校选择的描述很普遍，但在非裔美国人的政治话语中，他们对这种政策的描述却感到不安。本文分析了反对使用公立私立学校代金券的方式，以此暗示与非裔美国选民的团结关系。学校的选择高度种族化。众所周知，黑人政治家通过将选拔政策作为白人局外人分裂和分裂黑人社区的工具来反对择校政策。尽管民意测验表明，大多数非裔美国选民都支持教育券，但在竞选活动中，可以通过种族真实性和社区控制的角度来制定学校选择政策。取消授权。