Abstract

Neoliberalism is an approach to social policy, now globally influential, that applies market approaches to all aspects of social life, including education. Charter schools, privately operated but publicly funded, are its most prominent manifestation in the United States. This chapter argues that neoliberal principles of competition, consumerism, and choice cannot serve as foundations of a sound and equitable public education system. Neoliberalism embraces social inequality overall and in doing so constricts any justice mission its adherents espouse in virtue of serving a relatively disadvantaged student population – by embracing a “human capital” approach as the primary good of education, creating educational inequality through (unofficially) selecting a relatively advantaged segment of the disadvantaged demographic it serves, denying the effect of poverty on educational performance, and devaluing its students’ familial ethnic cultures.