Public Spaces, Politics, and Policy

This books takes a deep dive into the historic, sociopolitical, and economic interests that have resulted in a frontal assault on the very governance of public education. Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in the landscape of American public education, including the closure of local schools, elimination of teachers' unions, and local school board takeover attempts. In order to explore the social and political motivations behind these changes, the contributors address questions such as: What tactics are being used to drive this paradigm shift where teachers are the enemy, and schools are harming kids? What events in this sociopolitical moment right now make it ripe for dismantling the democratic experiment of public education? In an age of sound bites and instant news, how can the nuanced-and sometimes hypocritical-narrative supporting public education compete for attention with the seductive, political pablum of reactionary groups? The voices in these chapters include those of curriculum theorists, policy analysts, education practitioners and leaders, and parents-all of whom engage in forms of activism at the local and/or national level.

Todd Alan Price is Tenured Professor and Director of Curriculum, Advocacy, and Policy in the National College of Education at National Louis University, USA. Morna McDermott McNulty is Full Professor at Towson University, USA.

Foreword: Toward the Concrete, Rob Helfenbein Preface: Disruption at the School Board, Todd Alan Price Introduction: Ode to Milgram, Morna McNulty Part 1 Endless Highschool, Recurring Nightmares, Ann Bracken 1. Teach Freedom, Rick Ayers and Bill Ayers 2. Assessing the Historical Landscape of Higher Education and K12 Policies, Morna McNulty 3. Finding Refuge in Disastrous Circumstances? Neoliberal Salvation, Educational Parasitism, and School Choice, Kevin Lawrence Henry, Jr. 4. Critically Challenging Liberal Interests in School Integration, John Duffy Part 2 Value Added Teachers, Ann Bracken 5. A Review of Education Censorship and the Restrictions on Youth Rights: 2020-23, Brandon D. Mitchell 6. Breaking Free of the War, Crisis, and Miracle Cycles of Reading Policy and Practice, P.L. Thomas 7. The Freedom to Read: Two Authors and a Librarian Speak Out, Ann Bracken Part 3 Tik Toc, Dormetria Robinson Thompson 8. Critical Race Theory as Policy as Curriculum, Todd Alan Price 9. Black Lives Matter in Schools HoCo: Our Story, Erika Strauss Chavarria and Matthew Vaughn 10. Curricula of Belonging: Intra-actions at the Intersections of Ethical Commitments and Educational Necropolitics, Boni Wozolek 11. Part-time Faculty and Institutional Disassociation: Queering Adjunct Positionality, Nicholas Hayes Part 4 The Autoworker, Ann Bracken 12. Umoyja ni Nguvu (Unity is Strength), Ceresta Smith 13. Listen to Teachers Instead of Elites, Harry Ross and Nicole Trackman 14. I Never Saw It Coming: Now What, Thomas S. Poetter Afterword: Mourning in America-A Reflection on the Day After, Todd Alan Price Index