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As mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013, New Jersey senator Cory Booker led one of the nation’s most aggressive campaigns to privatize public schools. With the support of a dizzying array of powerful political figures, business and foundation leaders, and media moguls from across the political spectrum, Booker attempted to institute a regime of charter schools across the city. On his side were the Barack Obama White House, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, and media mogul Oprah Winfrey; against him stood teachers’ unions and large sections of the city’s working-class inhabitants.