Scott Abernathy

Narrative

Scott Abernathy is an associate professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. In his recent book, School Choice and the Future of American Democracy (The University of Michigan Press), Scott argues that the privileging of the consumer through the use of private vouchers threatens the expression of democratic citizenship in the larger political realm, particularly in resource-poor communities.

His recent book, No Child Left Behind and the Public Schools (also with The University of Michigan Press) explores the challenges of measuring educational quality from the top-down and considers the possibility of making the law live up to its liberal promises.

Scott has worked as a public school teacher in Wisconsin, a street-counselor with homeless youths in Boston, and as a volunteer with the dying in Calcutta. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 2002, an M.P.A. in Domestic Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1997, and a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1988.