ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the perennial tension that exists between federal and state education policy and reform efforts, competing goals of schooling and the ideas and ideologies that animate the politics of education policy amid a rapidly shifting policy landscape that includes a growing number of non-state actors and neoliberal policy goals. It provides an overview of the changing role and influence of the federal government and discusses the role that states play in providing education to all students. In 2010, President Barack Obama and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced plans to reform public education through Race to the Top—a federal grant program whereby states could compete for a share of $4.35 billion in federal education dollars to spur educational innovation. Central to the expansion of education management organizations and charter management organizations has been the support of particular foundations that support school choice, including the Broad Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
