Right to City, Right to Public Education in Los Angeles

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Perspectives of Neoliberalism

Abstract

This study examines how the discourse of the crisis and failing of public education creates space for the legitimization and deployment of neoliberal logic of education reform based on free market principles specifically in Los Angeles. It utilizes Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how these discourses and logic of neoliberal reform are constructed in the leaked draft (2015) and official version (2016) of Great Public Schools Now; an initiative aimed at increasing the charter market share in Los Angeles. In addition, it examines how the most recent School Board race (2017) in Los Angeles and its outcome embodies the neoliberal intent to shrink spaces of inclusivity while increasing the exclusion of individuals from right to city.

Author

• Eliza Tate, California State University - Los Angeles