Running head: NEOLIBERALISMANDTHEPUBLICSCHOOLSYSTEM

Neoliberalism and the Public School System

Jade Byrd
Dr. Santos
Loyola Marymount University
AFAM 398
May 4, 2015

NEOLIBERALISMANDTHEPUBLICSCHOOLSYSTEM

NEOLIBERALISM AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

Abstract:
This paper analyzes how neoliberal policies have influenced the quality of education in
low-income communities. Market logic ideologies have birthed the disinvestment of public
schools in urban, minority communities. This has subsequently shifted responsibility from the
government to individuals by basing funding on standardized test scores and other factors that
perpetuate racialized ideas of deservedness and penalize an entire population by stigmatizing
their failure as choice. As a result, students in low-income communities are left to compete
with their more privileged counterparts for success despite the unequal distribution of resources
and unequal access to education. The privatization and deregulation of public schools rely on the
system of an upward distribution from the poor to the elites thus creating a larger gap between
the rich and the poor.
Introduction
If there is no room for the idea of a wrong society, there is hardly much chance for the
idea of a good society to be born, let alone make waves" (Bauman). There is no denying that
there is an urgent need for educational reform. Neoliberal policies control the academic success
of students in the current public school system. By adopting market logic as a proponent of
social control, deregulating school procedures, justifying failure with accountability, and
unequally distributing funds and school resources, marginalized populations are robbed of their
ability to thrive beyond their social stature. The lasting effects of educational disparities
penalizes the marginalized by sequestering their potential.

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Background
According to Teresa Gowan with the supportive analysis of David Harvey, neoliberalism
represents the world-historical era when the transnational capitalist elite gradually succeeded in
their long-term project to regain global political hegemony (Gowan, 2013). Modern neoliberal
principles require and support market logic ideologies, cutting public expenditure for social
services, deregulation, privatization, and the shift from a community to an individualistic
culture. Various schools of thought have analyzed the effects of neoliberalism and support the
validity of the arguments presented in this essay. The Neo-marxist perspective focuses on the
upward distribution of economic resources as it shapes structures of inequality. The Neofoucautian perspective analyzes neoliberalism in the context of a cultural project highlighting
social control, feelings, and ideas of deservedness. The state of transformation represents a new
mode of statecraft that emphasizes the shift from a welfare state to a carceral state. All of these
schools of thought intertwine in the face of oppression and contribute to the administration of
political and social control of marginalized populations in the current public school system.
Privatization of Schools
Educational reform policies promise to enhance the quality of education for poor and
working class minority students, however the outcome doesnt necessarily work out in favor of
the oppressed. In light of these discrepancies, Lois Weiner (2012) reveals the purported aim of
increasing educational opportunity masks the real intent of these so-called education reformers to
create a privatized system of public education that has a narrow, vocational curriculum enforced

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through standardized tests. Politicians have glamorized the idea of the privatization of schools,
luring desperate lower class families into a path of disappointment.
Most of the damage is done in the dark; poor and low-income communities are
manipulated into broken promises. The omnipresence of low-performing and unsafe schools in
low-income communities has stimulated the support of the privatization of schools in pursuit of
better education. However, the vast majority (83%) of charter schools do not perform better
than traditional public schools contrary to popular belief. Additionally, private and charter
schools tend to academically ostracize special needs and English as Second Language students,
which also ties into ideas of deservedness and the logic of the market (Ambrosio, 2013).
Ambrosio furthers this notion by explaining how neoliberal school choice programs manipulate
and capitalize on desperate families by masking their severe educational concerns with false
hope. In fact, a recent study validates the extent of the exclusionary truth; 44% of schools
essentially turned down students, informing their parents that they would thrive at another school
(Rhim & McLaughlin, 2007). This concept is problematic because the ultimate goal of
privatization is to alleviate academic disparities and unequal access to resources, yet students are
still being rejected and forced to seek a value academic experience on their own.
Market logic
The current school system strives to produce workers that will contribute to corporate
America by policing students into docile bodies . Anyone who doesnt fit inside of the box of
potential market value is deemed surplus and therefore not deserving of a quality education .
Weiner (2011) reiterates the prevalence of this issue by revealing that schools in predominantly

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Hispanic and African American neighborhoods are often incapable of providing children with
more than the rudiments of literacy because they cannot afford to recruit and retain sufficient
numbers of teachers while some schools are so underfunded and overwhelmed by the number
of students that they are compelled to use bathrooms and closets as classrooms . Needless to say,
there is a lost cause ideology that is pervasive among neoliberals that has resulted in the
abandonment of public schools in impoverished , minority metropolitan areas. This approach has
furthered the gap between the rich and the poor by preparing privileged students for the work
force while abandoning poor communities of color as they are left to figure it out . Giroux
(2013) identifies that as public schools are put in the hands of for-profit corporations , hedge
fund elites, and other market driven sources, their value is derived for their ability to turn a profit
and produce compliant students eager to join the workforce . There is an unspoken expectation
from the school system not to cultivate and encourage intellectualism , creativity, and social
consciousness, but to produce students who will strictly benefit the economy and become wellbehaved member of society. Historian Fones-Wolf articulates this unspoken objective as a
means of socializing workers for the factory, and as a way of promoting social and political
stability (Fones-Wolf, 1994).
Like many neoliberal ideals, this particular concept of market logic is contradictory. It
seems as though market logic and market values would lead to the improvement of the quality of
education in efforts of increasing the amount of students entering the work force , however, it
seems to be the opposite. Instead, the privatization and unequal distribution of resources has
increased the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Subsequently, and unfortunately, there are

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no powerful and profound intellectual dramas in this view of schooling , just the muted rush to
make schools another source of profit for finance capital with its growing legion of bankers ,
billionaires and hedge fund scoundrels (Giroux, 2013). This system essentially ensures the
constant flow of funding allocated to schools in affluent neighborhoods and ensures the success
of the students.
Docile Bodies
Schools serve as an agent of control, preparing students for corporate America through
tactics used to construct docile bodies as Michel Foucault suggests that may be subjected, used,
transformed, improved and can only be achieved through strict regiment of disciplinary acts
(Foucault, 136). As schooling has shifted from a public good to a private right , students are
less likely to attain such an education that would promote intellectualism and critical thinking .
Consequently, students fall victim to neoliberal quotas for human capital.
Various methods are used to police students into docile beings; standardized testing ,
uniform requirements, and single file lines are conventional tactics . In this context, neoliberal
practices create a double-edged sword in the sense that children learn discipline while at the
same time they learn to adopt conformity.
Accountability and Individualism
Individualistic expectations and victim blaming lie at the core of the neoliberal agenda.
Despite the evident disparities in resources, teachers, and quality of education, students living in
low-income neighborhoods are compared to the success of their more privileged counterparts. As

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a result, schools in these neighborhoods are granted less funding than those of more affluent
neighborhoods due to the standardized test scores that each school produces. The issue is
cyclical; if a school is granted poor funding, they will never surpass the schools that are given
sufficient funds, resources, and quality teachers. This system aims to produce responsibilized
individuals who function as economic and moral agents charged with making sensible decisions
a school setting despite the inequities.
Neoliberal principles within the current school system are indirectly correlated to the shift
of responsibility from the government to individuals. However, studies have proven that students
arent always to blame. The Harvard Education Review conducted a study that highlighted the
cultural biases in standardized testing. This poses an issue because students draw from three
sources when taking standardized tests: their natural intellectual ability, what they learn in
school, and what they learn outside of school according to W. James Popham, an expert on
educational assessment (Evans, 2013). These findings reveal the protection of whites and wealth
by providing more affluent students with more advantages to succeed. Increasingly, standardized
test scores are being used to determine whether a student should be passed to the next grade or
held back. Also, it has been used as a method of ranking schools and school districts to
determine the teacher quality and student regurgitation with the intentions of "rewarding" those
teachers and schools with high scores and "punishing" those with low (Hursh, 2001). The
concept of deservedness is also at play by giving one population of people a jump-start while
penalizing the other.

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Accountability and individualism encourage personal goals as opposed to a collective

gain. This manifestation is a catch 22 in the sense that it can promote personal excellence, but
impede growth of a public good. Neoliberal society tends to adopt a crabs in a barrel mentality
when it comes to success. More specifically, in the context of educational responsibility, these
concepts create an environment of competitiveness. In this light, the school curriculum
encourages productivity and competitiveness and validates it as the ultimate and sole goal of
human actions and that economic forces cannot be resisted (Bourdieu, 1998). At a young age,
students are policed into individualistic neoliberal mentalities simply to ensure their academic
success.
Educational Disparities
The stigma attached to poverty, disability, and people of color fuels preconceptions and
influences the amount of money allocated to specific schools and programs. In a market logic
lens, the prejudice is that those particular populations are of no value to corporate America and
are therefore underserving of a quality education. Currently, 81% of Asian-American high
school students and 71% of white high school students attend high schools where the full range
of math and science courses are offered. The numbers alone dont pose a threat to impartiality,
however, when juxtaposed to students in other trajectories, those numbers speak louder and more
destructively.
In comparison to their more privileged counterparts, less than half of American Indian and
Native-Alaskan high school students have access to the full range of math and science courses in
their high school. Black students (57%), Latino students (67%), students with disabilities (63%),

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and English language learner students (65%) also have less access to the full range of courses
(U.S. Department of Education). This extends beyond issues regarding the quality of curriculum
or the quality of teachers; this data proves a lack of opportunity. Subsequently, students placed in
these circumstances are less likely to qualify for professions in the math and science fields,
which tend to be high-paying career paths.
The re-segregation of schools is another major contributor to the achievement gaps between
white students and minority students. Historically, the implementation of race-based educational
policies during the Civil Rights Era birthed the largest reduction of the white-black achievement
gap in American history. The major difference between education reform now and educational
reform then is that modern day society resolves problems with a colorblind lens. This poses and
issue because the ubiquity of racial tension has not faded, but has instead taken on another form
-- institutionalized racism. Marginalized populations no longer fear prejudice on the street; now
they fear men in suits, men of power executing policies and controlling lives. Realistically,
racially segregated schools and school systems are more isolated politically and, thus, more
vulnerable in funding battles with state legislatures (Weiner, 2005). As long as schools are
segregated, and policy makers are taking race out the equation of the problem, the journey to
equal educational opportunities will remain a rocky one.
Lasting Effects
School is not only a fundamental element in cultivating knowledge, but also in shaping
character. The public school system exhibits biopower, over oppressed populations by taking on

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life itself, or, how to manage, contain, constrain, and incite life, as a political concern for
governance in the confines of a school structure (Willse). The confidence and literacy that
students attain from a quality education has the power to carry students throughout life as
socially conscious members of society. However, failure to cultivate those characteristics
prevents students from carrying themselves in a professional manner and articulating themselves
in a place of self-empowerment. Low self esteem and self doubt both contribute to the state of
helplessness of marginalized students, decreasing their likelihood of challenging societal
inequities and participating in civil engagement. A neoliberal society relies on this power gap
and hierarchical system in order to capitalize on the poor and powerless.
In their attempt to produce docile bodies, school officials have the capacity to dictate the
fate of a students life depending on the method they use to resolve a particular conflict. These
methods vary depending on whether they are deemed surplus and unneeded or deserving and of
value of society. Often times, administrators utilize an aggressive approach in efforts of
teaching children a lesson or developing scare tactics allowing students to fall victim to
institutionalized systems. Studies show that over 90% of public schools have implemented
conservative disciplinary policies based on zero tolerance to exclude students who cannot be
responsibilized (Mora & Christianakis, 2013). The school to prison pipeline is a widespread
concern; schools have become militarized and provide a direct route for many youth into the
prison-industrial complex (Giroux, 2013). Certain youth are disproportionately affected by this
system. In 2007, The Advancement Project and the Power U Center for Social Change conducted
a study saying that for every 100 students who were suspended, 15 were Black, 7.9 were

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American Indian, 6.8 were Latino and 4.8 were white (Elias, 2013). Not surprisingly, the
alarming discrepancies between races in suspension align with the disproportionality of
minorities in prisons.
A common misconception is that disparities lie between color lines. However, there are
various levels of oppression, which can be understood in the context of intersectionality. In the
face of injustice, race distinguishes itself as the base from which all other injustices flourish. A
report by the Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative emphasizes, Latino
students, girls of color, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students also were
disproportionately suspended. People across the board face challenges with their inability to
fulfill the neoliberal requirements of what is defined to be deserving.
Neoliberal policies, concepts, and norms threaten a democratic educational experience
for students in America. Despite the multiple attempts to reinvent the education system to
become more inclusive, political efforts tend to do more harm than good. The color-blind
approach to reform will result in a static progression much like running in place. To ignore race
as an entity of oppression is to quick fix the issue without addressing the root cause of
inequity. The privatization and deregulation of schools symbolizes the shift of political culture
from a public service to an individual accountability, thus victimizing the individual who is less
self-sustainable and applauding the individual of means. These implementations serve to
protecting wealth, whiteness, and heteronormativity while penalizing those who dont fit neatly
into those classifications.

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