John Bryan Starr spent most of his career explaining Beijing to people who had never set foot there. So it might seem strange that people now call him a Chinese political science expert for a second reason too. In fact, he recently turned that same eye for power and institutions on something much closer to home: a fight over who actually runs American public schools. At first, the move sounds odd. But look closely at how he studies both subjects, and the link becomes clear fast.
What Makes a Chinese Political Science Expert Look at Superintendents
Starr was born in Berkeley, California. Later, he taught at three schools with real weight behind their names: UC Berkeley, Yale and Brown. That alone is not a small career.
He is also the author of the Understanding China book. This project grew out of years spent studying the country’s politics, its economy and its history all at once, not one topic at a time. So readers looking for a geopolitics book Understanding China seriously, one that covers regionalism, foreign policy and military strategy in a single volume, tend to keep it close by for a long time.
Here is the part that surprises most people. The tools he used to study Beijing did not stay in Beijing.
Studying a one-party state teaches you to watch for one thing above all: who actually holds power once the titles get stripped away. Maybe it is the party committee. Perhaps it is the ministry on paper. Or maybe it is a local official nobody outside the province has ever heard of. Understanding China walks through how that hidden power shifts, and why the answer almost never matches the official chart on the wall.
That habit, once learned, does not just disappear because the subject changes.
The Superintendent Selection Case Study
Starr’s second book, Public Schools, Politics and Polarization, is already sitting on Amazon under ASIN B0GSCHYKRK. And it points that same instinct at a very different fight. One Superintendent Selection Case Study inside the book follows a superintendent selection from the outside in. First, school board members cast their votes. Then a teachers’ union weighs in from the side. Meanwhile, state legislators apply pressure that never shows up on any public record. Behind all of it, the federal government’s rules sit quietly in the background the whole time.
Sound familiar? It is basically the same question he asked about China, just wearing different clothes. Who actually decides. Not who is simply supposed to decide on paper.
The book does not stop at one district, either. Instead, it moves across school boards, superintendents, teachers’ unions, state legislatures and the federal government, building each chapter around one real situation instead of a broad theory. This method is nothing new for Starr. It is the same discipline behind his China work, just aimed at zip codes instead of provinces.
Does that mean American school politics and Chinese regional politics run on identical rules? No, and Starr never claims otherwise. The players are different. The stakes are different. Even the legal structures barely resemble one another. What actually carries over is the method, not the conclusions drawn from it.
Why the Same Lens Works on Two Different Fights
Here is a fair question worth asking. Why would anyone spend decades tracking China influence on the world, then suddenly pivot to a school board fight in Ohio or Texas?
Because, oddly enough, both fights hide the exact same trick. Official titles rarely tell you who actually pulls the lever. For example, a ministry title in Beijing can carry less real power than one advisor’s private phone call. Likewise, a superintendent’s title in a mid-size American district can carry less real power than a single state legislator’s budget threat. Starr built a career noticing that gap inside one country. As a result, applying the same instinct somewhere else turned out to be a smaller leap than it looks from the outside.
Still, readers expecting the two books to blend into one long argument will be disappointed. They simply do not. The China book and Public Schools, Politics and Polarization stand as two separate projects, aimed at two different sets of readers, and priced separately too ($20.99 and $12.99 depending on format, with his China book soon available on Amazon). In short, what links them is the author, not the subject matter itself.
A Few Honest Limits
Of course, no single case study, whether on superintendents or on Chinese regionalism, explains everything about how power actually moves. Starr’s work leans on real examples rather than sweeping theory, and that choice comes with a cost. It means fewer grand predictions and a lot more careful, sometimes messy detail. So readers hunting for one tidy universal formula might want to look elsewhere. On the other hand, readers who enjoy watching the gears turn up close, in two very different settings, tend to get far more out of it.
Conclusion
So what does studying one country for decades really teach a person about a school board three states away? Mostly this: power rarely sits where the title claims it sits. And the only real way to find it is to study one situation closely, again and again. That is exactly what a Chinese political science expert brings to a fight over superintendents, and it turns out to be a strange, genuinely useful kind of range.
FAQs
Could a Chinese political science expert of Beijing actually understand a small-town school board better than a local reporter?
Maybe not better, but differently, and that difference matters. Starr is not chasing gossip or headlines. He is tracking the same thing he tracked in China for decades: who holds real power once the official titles stop meaning much.
Is Public Schools, Politics and Polarization secretly a book about China wearing a disguise?
Not quite, though the comparison is fun to make. The subject is entirely American. What sneaks in from his China work is the method: real case studies, real pressure points and no easy villain.
Do these two very different books ever actually agree with each other?
They agree on one thing only, and it is not the subject matter. Both trust specific, real-world examples over grand theories, which is rarer in political writing than most readers assume.
Where can I actually get these books right now?
Public Schools, Politics and Polarization is available today on Amazon under ASIN B0GSCHYKRK. Meanwhile, his China book is priced at $20.99 and $12.99 depending on format, and it will land on Amazon soon.