(Un)tangling the Web of Public Schools: (Un)veiling the Insidious and Covert Expansion of School Choice in Indianapolis

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Racial Equity in School Choice Processes (Table 36)

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to uncover how the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) choice market magnifies inequities, enables systemic racism to persist, and threatens to undermine or perhaps ultimately destroy traditional public schools. We employ a theoretical understanding of neoliberalism alongside Critical Race Theory in order to contend with the historical and racialized legacy of school choice. Our results illustrate the convoluted and entangled narrative surrounding school choice in IPS and reveal the covert and insidious ways public and charter boundaries have been blurred and seemingly erased. By (un)veiling these practices and creating publicly available resources (e.g., Google MyMaps), we begin to resist the web constructed and maintained by the (neo)liberal and racist charter school project.

Authors

• Bryan J. Duarte, Purdue University

• Érica Fernández, Miami University (OH)