25.036 - When Education-Focused Neoliberalism Comes to One City, Indianapolis, Local Scholar-Activists Join the Community-Based Resistance

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Neoliberalism has aggressively moved into education, especially in urban centers (e.g., Buras, 2015; Hobson, et. al., 2016; Lipman, 2011; Saltman, 2012) with the goal of privatizing all of education (e.g., Cucchiara, 2013; Hursch, 2015; Fabricant & Fine, 2012). To accomplish this, national “dark money” has teamed with local power brokers, like Chambers of Commerce, to establish “local” organizations, like the Mind Trust in Indianapolis, that funnel millions contributed by local and national conservative/rightwing individuals and organizations into buying school board elections and creating numerous charter schools. However, in most urban communities, a multi-racial resistance has emerged, some of which have pushed out the neoliberal invasion. This session relates the story of the emergence of this resistance in one city, Indianapolis.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 4: Policy and Mattering

Chair

• James Joseph "Jim" Scheurich, Indiana University - Indianapolis

Papers

• What Is Neoliberalism? - Elena Hatton Silverman, Indiana University - IUPUI

• The Early History of Neoliberal Education "Reform" in Indianapolis - Charity Scott, Indiana University - Indianapolis; Maureen Negrelli Coomer, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Two Scholar-Community Activists Tell the Story of the Resistance to Neoliberalist Education "Reform" in Indianapolis - Nathaniel A. Williams, Indiana University - Indianapolis; James Joseph "Jim" Scheurich, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Neoliberalism, School Choice, and Racial Segregation in Indianapolis Public Schools - Alycia M. Elfreich, Indiana University - Indianapolis; Gayle S Cosby, Indiana University - Indianapolis