From Desegregation to Privatization: A Critical Race Policy Analysis of School Choice and Educational Opportunity in North Carolina

ABSTRACT

School choice policies and the movement to privatize education have become the currently preferred school reform methods on both the state and federal levels under the guise they will provide equal educational opportunities and access for all students. The 1954 school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education arguably paved the way for equal educational opportunities, including school choice; however, we contend that the present-day school choice and privatization movements may be a part of a larger social, political, and legal cycle of inequality that has established residence in the American educational system for more than a century. We conduct a critical race theory policy analysis using a framework that has been effective in previous work with examining cyclical inequalities, the convergence-divergence-reclamation cycle (or C-D-R cycle). In this article, we are focusing our analysis on the state of North Carolina due to its complex legal and political history with school desegregation and its recent support for various school choice options and privatizing public education. We assert that the push for school choice and privatizing public education in North Carolina demonstrates a broader, recurring problem in American public schools-–creating progressive education laws and policies appearing to promote educational equity and opportunity and then regressing to policies supporting White privilege while maintaining the status quo of inequitable educational opportunities for historically underserved and minoritized students.     

‘Philanthropizing’ consent: how a private foundation pushed through national learning standards in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This article explores how the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (National Learning Standards), entered the policy debate in Brazil and became the most important reform initiative of the Ministry of Education between 2015 and 2017. We argue that this accelerated policy process was contingent upon the practice of philanthropizing consent: foundations’ use of material resources, knowledge production, media power, and informal and formal networks to garner the consent of multiple social and institutional actors to support a public policy. In other words, these foundations do not impose policies on governments; rather, they ‘render technical’ high-stakes political debates on pressing issues of educational equity and then influence state officials’ consensus about which policies to adopt. We argue that this philanthropic influence is not simply a neoliberal, profit-maximizing scheme; rather, it is an attempt by foundation and corporate leaders to garner power and influence on different scales, and re-make public education in their own image. Although this educational policy game is in many ways participatory and widely accepted, foundations are only able to play this role due to their tremendous economic power, a direct product of the unequal global political economy, and the systematic defunding of the public sphere.     

Informing in the Information Age: How to Communicate Measurement Concepts to Education Policy Makers

Current educational policies rely on educational assessments. However, the technical aspects of assessments are often unknown to policy makers, which is dangerous because sound assessment policy requires knowledge of the strengths and limitations of educational tests. In this article, we discuss the importance of informing policy makers of important psychometric issues that should be considered whenever tests are proposed for specific purposes. We discuss the types of information that are important to communicate to policy makers, how to best convey this information in a manner in which it can be understood, and how to be seen as a valuable source of information to education policy makers. We end with some specific steps organizations such as NCME can take to inform policy makers and advocate for valid educational assessment policies.     

Boston Public as Public Pedagogy: Implications for Teacher Preparation and School Leadership

The media play a major role in the construction of popular cultural “texts,” such as films and television programs. These media forms are conceptualized as “public pedagogies”—i.e., as texts that have great potential to teach the public about a wide range of educational issues. This article focuses attention on the representation of teachers and principals in the popular television series Boston Public. Specifically, the authors provide two complimentary accounts of how the representations of teachers and principals can be engaged through critical analyses or “readings.” One account develops a deconstructive reading of how Boston Public treats teacher preparation, teacher competence, and principal leadership. The second account examines how preservice teachers were engaged in multiple readings of the program. The article concludes by suggesting that analyzing popular representations of teachers and educational leaders in film and television can become one important strategy, among others, for developing critically reflective educational leaders and teachers.     

Child Development and Public Policy: Toward a Dynamic Systems Perspective

Little theoretical work exists that proposes general mechanisms for how public policies may influence child development. This article argues that dynamic systems theories may be useful in illuminating such processes, as well as highlighting gaps in current research at the intersection of public policy analysis and developmental science. A brief review of dynamic systems theories as they are currently utilized in other areas of developmental science is provided, as well as a statement of why they may help advance research in public policy and child development. Five principles of dynamic systems theories are presented and discussed using examples from research that address the question, "How do current antipoverty and welfare reform policies affect children?" Also presented are examples of hypotheses and research questions that each principle may generate for future work. The concluding section presents challenges that each principle poses for research methodology, and potential uses of the dynamic systems approach for developing and integrating policy and program initiatives.     

Access to what? Mission differentiation and academic stratification in U.S. public higher education

Academic policy initiatives have long been apowerful lever for mission differentiationwithin U.S. public higher education. Althoughthe higher education literature has examinedbasic issues in the design of public systems,the tension between access and differentiationhas not been explored. Drawing uponcomparative case studies of public highereducation in Massachusetts and New York, thisarticle examines recent policy initiatives toterminate academic programs, eliminate remedialeducation, and promote honors colleges withineach state system. The analysis depicts howthese policies contribute to increasedstratification of programs and students withina state system as well as within particularcampuses in a system. The authors argue thatpolicy analysis in higher education shoulddevelop a more refined conceptualization ofaccess that examines the cumulative impact ofcontemporary policies on the stratification ofstudent opportunity.     

Child Welfare,Education, Inequality,and Social Policy in Comparative Perspective

Using international data on child well-being and educational attainment, this article compares child well-being in the United States to member countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Multiple measures of child well-being are analyzed, such as material well-being (including poverty, unemployment, and income inequality), child health and safety (birth weight, infant mortality, health care, and childcare), educational attainment, and family and peer relationships (including generational cleavages). Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory as an organizational framework, the impact and interrelatedness of these systems on educational attainment are examined, with parallels drawn between a nation's social policies, child well-being, and educational attainment. The author asserts that social policy in the United States is more comprehensive than is commonly believed, although the redistributive benefits of social policies are allocated much differently compared to OECD countries. Explanations for comparative differences in social policy include differences in political culture and political development as well as racial and class conflict. The author concludes that it is difficult to ignore the role of race and socioeconomic class in explaining differences in social welfare expenditures between the United States and European countries because the pattern of social welfare distribution (broadly conceived—including programs, tax breaks, and incentives) falls largely along racial and class lines.     

Challenging neo-liberalism,building democracy: creating the Citizen School in Porto Alegre,Brazil

In this article, we situate the processes of educational policy and reform into their larger socio-political context. We describe the ways in which a set of policies has had what seem to be extensive and long lasting effects because the policies are coherently linked to larger dynamics of social transformation and to a coherent strategy that aims to change the mechanisms of the state and the rules of participation in the formation of state policies. We describe and analyse the policies of the ‘Popular Administration’ in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We specifically focus on the ‘Citizen School’ and on proposals that are explicitly designed to radically change both the municipal schools and the relationship between communities, the state and education. This set of policies and the accompanying processes of implementation are constitutive parts of a clear and explicit project aimed at constructing not only a better school for the excluded, but also a larger project of radical democracy. The reforms being built in Porto Alegre are still in formation, but we argue that they have crucial implications for how we might think about the politics of education policy and its dialectical role in social transformation.     

教育政策与美国总统政治

随着教育重要性的日益凸显,总统政治和教育的联系日趋密切。20世纪60年代中期以来,美国教育政策逐渐成为总统政治的核心,直接影响到总统竞选的成功与否以及执政过程中的民意向背。为此,两党候选人纷纷在竞选中将自己标榜为“教育总统”,积极构思一系列教育政策,以此谋求民众的支持。本文首先对20世纪60年代中期以来美国总统政治中的教育问题进行了系统梳理,随后对总统政治与教育之间的关系进行了总结。     

The Change from Private to Public Governance of British Higher Education: Its Consequences for Higher Education Policy Making 1980–2006

This article argues that in moving from being self governed to being state governed the policy drivers for higher education are no longer those of the system itself but are derived from a set of policies designed for the reform and modernisation of the public sector of the economy. The formation of higher education policy therefore needs to be reinterpreted as an adjunct of public policy, rather than as something intrinsic to higher education. The impact of 'new public management' approaches and of political interventions are explored in illustrating the consequences of the centralisation of the management of the public services and of higher education becoming an issue in national politics.     

Educational Change: a model for its analysis

This article is concerned with theorising educational change. Working within a Marxist reproduction problematic, power and domination are theorised in terms of Social Forms—wage, state and civil‐forms—which are the product of capitalist social relations. Since these forms are a feature of the social formation, including the education system, a ‘translation effect’ between different levels of analysis can be identified. This approach entails recognition of the fact that reproduction is contested and has a political aspect, which is revealed by a ‘content‐theoretical’ model of educational change. This model delineates the relationship between the economic and political (the wage and state‐forms) as the dynamic for change, thereby demonstrating how the political makes possible the reproductive role of the education system. The utility of this model, and in particular its capacity to account for unintended consequences of educational change, is illustrated by reference to the recent introduction of the ‘new vocationalism’ into Further Education.     

Dollars to Discriminate: The (Un)intended Consequences of School Vouchers

Some private, religious schools that accept vouchers have been accused of discriminating against certain populations of students through their admissions processes. Discriminating against disfavored groups (e.g., racial minorities, LGBT students, students with disabilities, religious minorities) in voucher programs raises both legal and policy concerns that have not been extensively examined in recent research. Employing legal research methods, this article examines state voucher statutes and discusses the potential for voucher programs to discriminate against marginalized groups. We argue that each state has an obligation to ensure that any benefit it creates must be available to all students on a nondiscriminatory basis—including the benefit of a publicly funded voucher for attendance at a private school. As this review of existing voucher statutes will demonstrate, legislators appear to have neglected to construct policies that safeguard student access and ensure that public funds do not support discriminatory practices. Without additional safeguards, states risk providing public money that can be used to promote discriminatory policies and practices.     

Non-Religion-Based State Constitutional Challenges to Educational Voucher and Tax Credit Programs

This article provides an overview of non-religion-based state constitutional challenges to educational voucher and tax credit/scholarship programs. The first section discusses litigation examining whether education voucher programs violate constitutional provisions requiring the legislature to provide an efficient system of public schools. The second section looks at litigation examining whether educational voucher programs violate constitutional provisions requiring states to provide a uniform system of public schools. The third section summarizes case law in which plaintiffs have claimed that educational voucher programs violate constitutional requirements that state spending serve a public purpose. The fourth section discusses litigation in which courts have addressed whether educational voucher programs violate local control mandates. The fifth section evaluates challenges to education voucher and scholarship tax credits on the grounds that such policies contravene constitutional mandates that prohibit public spending to private schools. The final section identifies key themes that these non-religion-based state constitutional challenges raise for educational vouchers and tax credit programs as well as emerging issues of litigation.     

Commentary: Accountability Policy and Scholarly Research

Since 2001, considerations of school reform have been dominated by performance-based accountability. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has changed the way policymakers and educators talk about education, look at educational performance, and think about educational challenges. Nonetheless, NCLB and the state accountability systems it has spawned have been subjected to little careful scrutiny. This article discusses four recent research contributions and considers how they might inform policymaking on accountability. While scholarly scrutiny will not necessarily settle debates, it can help yield more constructive and informed decisions. In particular, research can clarify the actual consequences of policy decisions; highlight and refine approaches that may be more reliable, stable, and effective than those in use; flag the unanticipated or overlooked effects of design decisions; and ensure that both policymakers and the public are aware of the costs and benefits of accountability.     

Neoliberalism, Social Darwinism, and Consumerism Masquerading as School Reform

Education reform policies harvested from neoliberalism, social Darwinism, consumerism, and free-market ideologies have begun to replace the pragmatic progressivism of the pre-World War II era. In this article, I use three federal and state education reform policies and programs—No Child Left Behind Act, Common Core State Standards Initiative, and national standardized testing—as examples of market-oriented ideologies embedded in the reforms. Further, I rely on Critical Social Theory, following Freire, as a framework to examine how the education policies and programs intersect to potentially impede access to quality education opportunities for children from impoverished backgrounds. I use Freire’s conception of Critical Social Theory because of his focus on how education should be used as a transformational mechanism to improve lives rather than a tool to train and inculcate children to imitate and be subservient to the dominant culture. I argue that some federal education policies enacted since 2002 provide examples of the confluence of ideologies that are creating a new meritocracy-based system. The meritocracy-based system will disproportionately penalize poorer students who have less access to out of school experiences that prepare them for formal schooling. Based on punishment triggers embedded in state and federal education policies, a cycle of educational austerity ensues when a student does not achieve a mandatory achievement benchmark. The cycle of austerity can doom some students to under-achievement in the short term and to becoming under-educated in the long term.     

Competing Paradigms of Educational Justice: Parent Organizing for Educational Equity in a Neoliberal Reform Context

This article examines a grassroots parent organizing effort in a large, high-poverty, urban school district. Drawing from ethnographic field research at a community-based popular education organization, the study describes how parent organizers worked to educate and mobilize Latina/o immigrant parents on issues of educational justice and equity. It identifies three pillars of their approach—a social theory, a theory of change, and a theory of knowledge— and argues that these were not reducible to a set of practices or methods; rather, they constituted a coherent paradigm of educational justice. This paradigm differs in significant ways from the neoliberal justice paradigm that currently dominates education reform and policy. By examining points of tension between these two competing paradigms, this article seeks to accomplish two aims. First, it aims to deepen our understanding of how underlying paradigms of educational justice shape the work of educating, organizing, and reforming schools. Second, it aims to expose the cultural specificity, or non-universality, of the neoliberal paradigm in order to challenge its hegemonic status in education reform and policy.     

A study of the scientific interests of dwellers in small towns and in the country

Congress's role in defining and promoting equality of educational opportunity has evolved over the past 55 years since Brown v. Board of Education. Most recently, all three branches of the federal government have focused more on equality of educational opportunity for individual students rather than for protected classes. In this article, the authors combine two different frameworks to assess Congress's evolving role in ensuring equality of educational opportunity for all students—particularly given the new political and economic realities facing the nation. The first is federalism; the second is policy instruments for advancing varied goals in education, which the authors use to examine specific policy domains where Congress might increase its impact on equality of educational opportunity. These domains are concerned with “incentivizing equity” through competitive grants designed to reduce racial and socioeconomic inequality, improving existing categorical grant programs to make them more targeted and efficient, and strengthening enforcement of existing policies and programs. Throughout, the authors consider how recent research about equality of best be brought to bear on congressional priorities. In conclusion, they discuss the political realities facing Congress in 2012 and beyond, including partisanship and the prospect of cuts to pre-K-12 education spending.     

Creating Educational Destruction: A Critical Exploration of Central Neoliberal Concepts and Their Transformative Effects on Public Education

Individualism and competition are central neoliberal concepts that have profoundly altered the U.S. public education system. This article draws on poststructuralist theory and advances the argument that these concepts have produced problematic policies and deeply flawed school choice mechanisms such as charter schools and school vouchers. I also explore how educational activists contested neoliberal ideology and reshaped reality as they defeated a neoliberal education policy in North Carolina.     

From policy to practice: The challenges to educational access for non-nationals in South Africa

This paper argues that the problems of educational access for non-nationals in South Africa lie not simply in failures of the current policies, although there are certainly instances where policies need modification, but largely in the implementation of existing policies, and the ways in which they are developed and modified. The paper reviews evidence in the international literature and draws on empirical evidence from a small study of a group of Zimbabwean migrant children to illustrate more clearly the dynamics that serve to exclude them from access to schooling, despite official policy commitments. Key research questions that are addressed are what main barriers to educational access exist for non-national and are these a result of policy gaps; how does the implementation of existing educational policies affect the educational access of non-nationals; what approaches to policy and practice would be more effective in ensuring non-nationals participate fully in basic education? The paper ends with some observations on how to address the policy gaps and how to develop a more effective approach to policy formation and implementation in order to improve both policy and practice.