Education as a Civic Marketplace: The Political Rhetoric of Arne Duncan

• In Event: Public Opinion and Polarization

Abstract

We analyze Arne Duncan’s rhetoric during his entire tenure as U.S. Secretary of Education. Updating prevailing accounts of Duncan’s rhetoric as revealing a “neoliberal” perspective of schooling, we maintain that he both represented and helped to shape a dominant narrative about education that we term schools as a “civic marketplace.” Inherent in this rhetoric were unresolved tensions about the public vs. private purposes of education, and the moral vs. economic imperative to educate all American youth. This study contributes to research on the use of rhetoric in the context of American education policy, theoretical work seeking greater nuance in use of the term “neoliberalism,” and historical studies tracing longstanding conflicts between ascribed purposes of public education in the United States.

Authors

• Judith R. Kafka, Baruch College - CUNY

• Don Waisanen, Baruch College