School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy: How Market-Based Education Reform Fails Our Communities

Robert Asen

Published by Penn State University Press 2021

School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy

How Market-Based Education Reform Fails Our Communities

Robert Asen

Volume 26 in the series Rhetoric and Democratic Deliberation

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271091518

Overview
Contents

About this book

Evidence shows that the increasing privatization of K–12 education siphons resources away from public schools, resulting in poorer learning conditions, underpaid teachers, and greater inequality. But, as Robert Asen reveals here, the damage that market-based education reform inflicts on society runs much deeper. At their core, these efforts are antidemocratic.

Arguing that democratic communities and public education need one another, Asen examines the theory driving privatization, popularized in the neoliberalism of Milton and Rose Friedman, as well as the case for school choice promoted by former secretary of education Betsy DeVos and the controversial voucher program of former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. What Asen finds is that a market-based approach holds not just a different view of distributing education but a different vision of society. When the values of the market—choice, competition, and self-interest—shape national education, that policy produces individuals, Asen contends, with no connections to community and no obligations to one another. The result is a society at odds with democracy.

Probing and thought-provoking, School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy features interviews with local, on-the-ground advocates for public education and offers a countering vision of democratic education—one oriented toward civic relationships, community, and equality. This book is essential reading for policymakers, advocates of public education, citizens, and researchers.

Author / Editor information

Asen Robert :

Robert Asen is Stephen E. Lucas Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of numerous books, including Democracy, Deliberation, and Education, also published by Penn State University Press.

Reviews

“School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy deals deftly with the pressing question of how well democratic practices and public advocacy hold up against the structures of neoliberalism and its valorization of market logics. This book uses both theoretical and empirical evidence to highlight the limitations of market logics for collective projects and suggests that we recommit ourselves to the difficult work of local political practice.”
—Catherine J. Chaput, author of Inside the Teaching Machine: Rhetoric and the Globalization of the U.S. Public Research University

“The affirmative and affirming vision of School Choice and the Betrayal of Democracy is one that rejects the ‘neutrality’ of ‘the market,’ and the habit of ignoring problems such as economic coercion, in favor of a world of interconnection. Asen’s elegant analysis of the (a)morality of neoliberalism is sure to be heavily cited for years to come.”
—Patricia Roberts-Miller, author of Demagoguery and Democracy

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction: Competing Discourses and Contrasting Visions of Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Democracy as a Way of Life: John Dewey’s Vision for Individuals and Their Relationships Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
2 Markets as a Way of Life: The Friedmans’ Vision for Individuals and Their Relationships Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
3 Competition and Innovation in the Education Industry: Betsy DeVos’s Campaign for School Choice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
4 Growing Markets, Diminishing Democracy: The Statewide Expansion of Vouchers in Wisconsin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
5 Connecting Schools and Communities: Local Advocacy for Public Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
Conclusion: Means, Ends, and Public Education Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 248
Keywords: Public education; democracy; public sphere; markets; vouchers; neoliberalism; community; John Dewey; Milton and Rose Friedman; Betsy DeVos; Wisconsin

eBook

Published: September 28, 2021
ISBN: 9780271091518