ABSTRACT
High drop-out rates, a decline in ‘functional literacy,’ a loss of standards and discipline, the failure to teach ‘real knowledge’ and economically useful skills, poor scores on standardized tests, and more—all of these are charges leveled at schools. The threat to egalitarian ideals that these attacks represent is not usually made quite this explicitly, since they are often couched in the discourse of ‘improving’ competitiveness, jobs, standards, and quality in an educational system that is seen as in total crisis. Education is a site of struggle and compromise. It serves as a proxy as well for larger battles over what our institutions should do, who they should serve, and who should make these decisions. Neo-liberals are the most powerful element within the alliance supporting conservative modernization. Underpinning this position is a vision of students as human capital. The world is intensely competitive economically, and students—as future workers—must be given the requisite skills and dispositions to compete efficiently and effectively.
