Robert Anthony Maranto (born March 28, 1958) is a political scientist who holds the 21st Century Chair in Leadership at the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas (appointed in 2008).
Maranto earned his doctorate in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1989, and has taught at ten colleges and universities. The son of a career bureaucrat, he is strongly interested in efforts to make public bureaucracies better serve the public. He has written widely on civil service reform, university reform, and school reform, particularly on charter schools.
Prior to his appointment at UA, Maranto taught at Villanova University and served in the Clinton administration and at the Brookings Institution. With others including his wife April, he has produced eleven scholarly books, including President Obama and Education Reform,[1]A Guide to Charter Schools, Beyond a Government of Strangers,[2] and Radical Reform of the Civil Service. In 2009 he co-edited both the conservative-leaningThe Politically Correct University, and the liberal-leaningJudging Bush. His co-authored Education Reform in the Obama Era: The Second Term and the 2016 Election, will be published December 2015 by Palgrave. As of June 2015[update], he is working on a book for Rowman and Littlefield, tentatively titled For School Choice: Lessons from two decades of Arizona charter schools. Maranto edits the Journal of School Choice. His more than 70 scholarly publications have appeared in journals including Social Science Quarterly, the Journal of Educational Research, the Journal of School Leadership, Education Next, Computers and Education, and Public Administration Review. His newspaper op-eds have appeared in numerous venues including The Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, and Houston Chronicle. He currently serves on the board of a nonprofit cyber charter school serving at-risk youth, Achievement House. He also serves on the Arkansas Advisory Committee for the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. His children, Tony and Maya, attend public schools in Fayetteville.[3]
Maranto, R., R. Redding, and F. Hess eds. (2009) The Politically Correct University, Washington: AEI Press.
Maranto, R., T. Lansford, and J. Johnson eds. (2009) Judging Bush, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Kayes, Myron and Robert Maranto eds. (2006) A Guide to Charter Schools: Research and Practical Advice for Educators, Littlefield Education.
Maranto, Robert, Douglas M. Brattebo, and Tom Lansford, eds. (2006) The Second Term of George W. Bush: Prospects and Perils, New York: Macmillan/Palgrave.
Maranto, R. (2005) Beyond a Government of Strangers: How Career Executives and Political Appointees Can Turn Conflict to Cooperation, Lanham: Lexington.[2]
Condrey, S. and R. Maranto, eds. (2001) Radical Reform of the Civil Service, Lanham: Lexington.
Maranto, R., S. R. Milliman, F. Hess, and A.W. Gresham, eds. (1999) School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools, Boulder: Westview.
Maranto, R., Gary Ritter, and Sandra Stotsky (2008) “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Will President Obama’s School Reform Bring the Change Kids Need?” Golden, CO: Independence Institute (IP-10-2008).
^Stein, Judith (2014). "President Obama and Education Reform: The Personal and the Political by Robert Maranto and Michael Q. McShane". Journal of School Choice. 8 (1): 146–149. doi:10.1080/15582159.2014.875424. ISSN1558-2159. S2CID145259116.
^ abMann, Stacey (2009). "Book Review: Maranto, R. (2005). Beyond a Government of Strangers: How Career Executives and Political Appointees Can Turn Conflict to Cooperation. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books". Review of Public Personnel Administration. 29 (2): 197–199. doi:10.1177/0734371X09333309. ISSN1552-759X. S2CID143761452.
