From Accountability to Privatization and African American Exclusion

Abstract

This article analyzes Chicago's new Renaissance 2010 school plan to close public schools and reopen them as choice and charter schools. Grounding the analysis in participatory research methods, the authors argue that Chicago's education accountability policies have laid the groundwork for privatization. They furthermore argue that Renaissance 2010 is part of a neoliberal corporate and financial urban agenda of gentrification, African American displacement, and the class conquest of the city by the middle and upper-middle classes. The authors conclude with a discussion of emerging resistance to the plan, suggesting that education may be a focal point of anti-neoliberal economic and social struggles.

Renaissance 2010: The Reassertion of Ruling-Class Power through Neoliberal Policies in Chicago

“…Based on consistent involvement in these events, Lipman and Haines, and then Lipman, generated field notes and interview notes and collected documents that inform this account. Lipman has also been studying and writing about Chicago school policy for the past eight years (see Lipman & Gutstein, 2001;Lipman, 2002Lipman, , 2003Lipman, , 2004Lipman & Haines, 2007) and the article is informed by that body of work. It also draws on recent policy papers and documents of civic elites and community and labor organizations, media accounts, City of Chicago housing data, and relevant CPS and Illinois School Board of Education quantitative data.…”

“…In the case of the Midsouth, that land is near to Lake Michigan, major expressways, public transportation, two public universities, and 10 minutes from downtown Chicago. It is not surprising that the Midsouth is a focus of some of the most intense gentrification in the city (see Lipman & Haines, 2007).…”

“…Renaissance 2010 is part of a larger project to raze low-income African American communities, with the goal of gentrifying areas with new condominiums, luxury apartments, and retail services. Renaissance 2010 reveals the increasing ability of the corporations to reshape both the city and schools in their own interests, using neoliberal education and economic policies to recreate Chicago as a global city central to the financial, real estate, retail, and service industries (see Lipman & Haines, 2007).…”

Youth Participatory Action Research And The Future Of Education Reform

“…(France, 2003), to hopes that neoliberal reform leader Michelle Rhee could save DC schools (Thomas, 2008), the mainstream media has characterized market-based reforms and charter schools as muchneeded efforts to save struggling communities of color (Hankins & Martin, 2006). Under the cover of this savior framework, the neoliberal education reform agenda has implemented projects of racialized dispossession that especially impact low-income African American communities (Buras, 2011;Lipman & Haines, 2007;Bartlett et al, 2002).…”

“…Because charter schools function with a high level of freedom from public oversight (Ravitch, 2010), proponents argue that they provide opportunities for educational innovations. However, critics argue that they represent a movement to transform urban education for profit-driven rather than public education interests (Lipman & Haines, 2007;Lubienski, 2001). …”