Acting Neoliberal: Is Black Support for Vouchers a Rejection of Progressive Educational Values?

Everyday Politics of School Choice in the Black Community

“…Alongside these activists are free-market advocates inspired by the writings of Milton Friedman ( 1962 ) who promote the logics of innovation through deregulation, accountability, competition, and choice as the solution to poor performing schools. Given the ill fit of traditional political labels, school choice advocacy in the Black community is often characterized as convening "strange bedfellows" (Bonds et al, 2009 ;Carl 1996 ;Dougherty 2004 ;Pedroni 2006 ). 6 Despite heterogeneity, the central and foundational role of Black radical leadership in promoting school choice is well documented.…”

“…Stulberg (2008) charts the legacy of these various Black political movements in the founding of a charter school in Oakland by Black leaders who “explicitly viewed themselves in the tradition of community control and other school-based movements for African American freedom and social justice” (p. 112). There are many other examples of charter schools (and voucher advocates) that have no relationship to free-market business interests or conservative politicians, but are instead spearheaded by local African-centered educators and passionate teachers frustrated by traditional public schools (Pedroni 2006; Wells et al, 1999; Yancey 2005). Below I elaborate the key themes that this literature documents as motivating Black support for school choice.…”

“…This complexity means that the tidy labels of liberal, radical, progressive, conservative, and neoliberal are not always helpful for characterizing the Black political landscape around choice (DeBray-Pelot et al, 2007; Pedroni 2006). 5 Scholars have documented that school choice rhetoric emanates as much from the “conservative” actions of Southern White segregationists who fought the Brown v. Board of Education decision by setting up all-White private schools with public state grants (Bonastia 2012; MacLean 2009) as from the “progressive” or “radical” activism of independent Black school founders and African American teachers and parents who fought for community control as a way to achieve a learning environment that did not pathologize their children (Forman 2005; Hochschild and Scovronick, 2003; Holt 2000; Lee 1992; Robinson 2004; Slaughter-Defoe et al, 2012; Stulberg 2008; Wells et al, 1999; Yancey 2005).…”

Homonormativity, Charternormativity, and Processes of Legitimation: Exploring the Affective-Spatio-Temporal-Fixed Dimensions of Marriage Equality and Charter Schools

“…Though I center my critique around these larger charter chains, I recognize that locally-controlled and democratically operated charter schools that engage students in critical thinking and liberatory education and serve students with dis/Abilities maintained a presence in the charter landscape. Therefore, I understand how and why charters receive support from a diverse set of stakeholders including families, students, teachers, and communities(Pedroni, 2006).…”

Education Policy as Proto-fascism: The Aesthetics of Racial Neo-liberalism

“…In a sociological sense, a politics of self-choice may be one of belonging, and certainly produces a politics of "self-separation" [Dei 1995] that pivots on determining who has the authority, perhaps copyright [Gilroy 2000: 179], to develop and place themselves within particular schools . This has led some scholars to argue that education and economic policies that promote ethnic identity schools are a new force in conservative politics that simultaneously promote school choice and school competition [Pedroni 2006] .…”