ABSTRACT
The Anti-School Movement (ASM) needs to be understood as a movement to control what and how American students learn. The ASM contains elements of both neoliberal and neoconservative ideologies. Neoliberals seek to create educational systems suited to increasing economic productivity. Members of the ASM include any organization, alliance, or individual working to undermine public education through choice initiatives. In 2004 alone, the Harry Bradley Foundation spent nearly $7 million building intellectual infrastructure, money spent "to strengthen institutions and individuals which contribute to the nurturing of those ideas that form the cornerstone of our intellectual, cultural, and economic way of life". As No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) silences individual need and voice, turning public schools over to private alliances, the act must be understood as anti-school, antivoice, and antidemocracy. NCLB and its reliance on the market represent efforts by members of the ASM to open the door for private companies to run failing schools.
