“The Safest Choice”: Gentrification, Power, and Contested Policy Decisions about Pandemic School Re-openings

• In Event: Advancing New Directions in School Gentrification Research Centered on Righting, Remedy, and Repair

Abstract

School re-openings in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic were highly politicized, with Republican-dominant states and regions re-opening schools for in-person instruction before Democrat-leaning states and cities (Grossmann et al., 2021; Kitchens et al., 2024). These broad trends can mask important, contested dynamics within urban school districts, where stakeholders used differing constructions of justice and specific contextual and relational factors to make decisions about when and how to re-open schools. (Freidus & Turner, 2023; Singer et al., 2023). While gentrification is a growing phenomenon in urban neighborhoods (Hwang, 2015), especially in schools located in neighborhoods that previously experienced divestment (Pearman, 2020), we know little about how gentrification shaped school re-opening decisions. Using the case of pandemic re-opening debates in a small, gentrifying city, this study addresses how gentrification shifts power dynamics and reshapes the landscape of public education discourse and policy decisions.

This research is grounded in conceptualizations of gentrification that include physical and demographic changes alongside analyses of racism, capitalism and interest convergence (Hwang, 2015; Quarles & Butler, 2018; Rucks-Ahidiana, 2022). I draw on an analytical lens of critical policy analysis to make sense of how unequal power among stakeholders shapes whose voices are heard and whose needs are prioritized at critical policy junctures (Turner et al., 2024; Young & Diem, 2016). Data include publicly available materials, such as school committee meeting notes and video analyses, union meeting notes and public letters and comments, and websites from parent organizations concerning school re-openings in 2020-2021. The study is set in a small city, with approximately 5,000 students in the district, an important and understudied context for school gentrification research that tends to focus on the nation’s largest cities.

The findings of this research reveal how two forms of demographic change, rising numbers of low-income, Latinx immigrant families and growing numbers of highly-educated, affluent parents, become salient in education policymaking, especially in a moment of social, economic and health crisis, like the Covid-19 pandemic. Union representatives, district leaders, and elected school board members had to contend with gentrifier parents’ vocal advocacy for re-opening. While low-income immigrant families faced barriers to participation, including lack of authorized immigration status and inadequate linguistic support for Spanish- and Portuguese- speakers, their supposed needs were used as a political tool to support the demands of gentrifier parents advocating for immediate school re-opening and union representatives arguing for extended remote learning. Parents from more affluent schools and schools that were already undergoing significant gentrification were far more represented among public comments than parents from schools that were in earlier stages of gentrification. Yet a growing coalition of Latinx families, including both gentrifiers and low-income immigrant families, complicated racialized narratives about re-opening and remote learning.

This study sheds light on how gentrification influences public narratives about and engagement with school policy decisions, especially in highly contentious political moments. By understanding shifting power dynamics as a factor in policymaking in gentrifying districts, we can more effectively remedy unequal voice and representation in our cities’ schools.

Author

• Sarah Bruhn, University of Pennsylvania