“All schools are not created equal:” An analysis of public comments on school rezoning

Abstract

Public opinion plays an important role in shaping the policy process. We examined public input in the form of written public comments to interrogate group expression and public values in school policymaking. Drawing on theoretical and methodological tenets of critical policy and critical discourse analysis, our study examined 3,339 written public comments across two school districts undergoing school rezoning, which is the process of drawing and redrawing school attendance boundaries. Our findings highlight the complexity of public opinion on rezoning policies related to 1) competing values and visions for school diversity, 2) racialized conceptualizations of community members’ sense of belonging, and 3) forms of boundary maintenance used to discursively resist boundary changes by excluding students and families of color from crucial resources. As more U.S. districts consider rezoning to balance the racial and/or economic composition of schools, this study contributes new insight into stakeholders’ implicit and explicit racial attitudes, motivations, and values in response to rezoning’s complex policy process.

Narratives of Race in School Rezoning: How the Politics of Whiteness Shape Belonging, Leadership Decisions, and School Attendance Boundaries

“…Our study of school rezoning draws from a larger comparative rezoning project across two Virginia school districts between 2019 and 2021 (see Castro et al, 2022; Siegel-Hawley et al, 2021). For this article, semistructured interviews conducted with 15 key stakeholders in RPS’s rezoning process were primary data sources, but we also incorporated field-based observations 4 of public meetings to offer contextual details.…”

“…Researchers have explored the discourse of whiteness to interrogate ways whiteness manifests in educational policy (Aggarwal, 2016), whiteness as forms of opportunity hoarding (Diamond, 2018), or White entitlement to both physical and metaphorical space (Castro et al, 2022; Posey-Maddox, 2014; Warren & Coles, 2020). This research collectively articulates how whiteness—a social concept—is sustained materially, psychologically, and emotionally within the “invisible ontology” of race (Leonardo, 2009).…”

Attendance zones in the suburbs

“…Placing racial and socioeconomic diversity at the forefront of an AZB change process requires us to rethink the purpose of public education. Previous case studies of AZB change reveal families’ competing values around public education and differing ideas about the meaning and importance of school diversity (Castro, Parry, & Siegel-Hawley, 2022). These conversations are particularly likely to be happening in suburban areas where historically homogenous white neighborhoods now include residents of color.…”

The Politics of School Rezoning in the “Cradle of a Nation”: Racial Segregation, Settler Colonialism, and Private Property in Williamsburg, Virginia

“…Critical Race theorists argue that public school integration is problematic for white people as it “disrupts the durability of white supremacy” and threatens the ability of white people to preserve economic and social superiority over people of color (Patterson 2001:88). In the twenty-first century, white peoples’ challenges to desegregation efforts continue to draw on discourses that emphasize their right to exclude people of color (Castro, Parry, and Siegel-Hawley 2022; Donnor 2012). For example, scholars have found that, in debates over school attendance boundary rezoning, white, affluent parents use technical arguments (e.g., class size, school safety), colorblind racism, and meritocratic claims to justify access to the perceived “best” school (Bartels and Donato 2009; Castro, Siegel-Hawley, et al 2022).…”

“…Rezoning involves drawing boundaries around residential areas assigned to particular schools. In the context of residential and school segregation, rezoning school attendance boundaries tends to generate contentious debates, often with white, middle-class parents furiously opposing school reassignments and successfully resisting changes that would reduce racial and socioeconomic segregation (Bartels and Donato 2009; Castro, Parry, and Siegel-Hawley 2022; Castro, Siegel-Hawley, et al 2022; Richards 2017; Wells and Serna 1996). In this context, we ask: what logics and discourses do race- and class-privileged parents draw on to justify a status quo of educational inequities?…”