ABSTRACT
One of the centerpieces of corporate, neoliberal education reform in the United States is the idea that public schools should be viewed and run like private businesses, operating within the competition of the capitalist “free” market. We see this most clearly within the structures of current education reform policies being implemented in across the United States. Whether it is the idea of schools competing against one another such that those with low test scores close and new ones open, the promotion of entrepreneurial management organizations opening “innovative” charter schools, or teachers competing through merit pay structures that reward or penalize individuals for student test scores, the business-like logic of free-market competition abounds in current education policy. Consistent with neoliberalism, this model advances the removal of any perceived obstacles to competition (e.g., state regulation and unions) in favor of allowing the market to determine success or failure (Apple, 2006). The problem is that at every point, the neoliberal logic of running schools as if they were businesses is a lie.
