Transportation Logics: How Charter School Leaders Make Choices About Student Transportation

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Fourteen
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Barriers to Choosing and Remaining in Schools of Choice (Table 10)

Abstract

This study uses a framework of policy logics to explore the interplay between regulatory structures and charter school practices as they relate to student transportation in New Orleans and Detroit. We draw on interviews with 17 representatives from the charter sector to describe prominent beliefs about providing school transportation and the influence of state and district-level regulations on transportation practices. In New Orleans, state mandates for universal transportation positioned a neoliberal conception of equity as a central goal for charter school leaders. In Detroit, the absence of such mandates and authorizing procedures emphasizing market goals made equity less salient. In both cities, competition and weak public transit resulted in charter leaders prioritizing market logics in ways that threated equity.

Authors

• Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, University of California - Santa Barbara
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ayesha Hashim, NWEA
  Presenting Author