Housing and Zoning Policy as Education Policy Amid Crises of Capital

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Research on School Closures, Zoning Policies, and De/Segregation (Table 9)

Abstract

Metropolitan racial demographics in the U.S. are shifting. Racialized processes have brought more White people to urban areas, while suburbs have become more racially diverse, changing the racial composition of schools. Using Seattle as a case of school gentrification, I investigate how policy and people’s everyday actions have shaped school-communities, particularly in gentrifying neighborhoods with majority people of color. I argue that the state, as exemplified in this case study of Seattle, struggles to realize racial equity in gentrifying school-communities, even when it supports progressive policy. I analyze policy and people’s conceptions of policy to find interventions toward spatial justice, or the equitable distribution of resources across place and freedom of movement (Soja, 2010) in the meantime.

Author

• Hailey Karcher, Seattle Public Schools