ABSTRACT
Charter schools began as a public alternative to traditional public schools, allowing parents and students to select educational environments seemingly better suited to their students' needs, interests, or goals. Charter school and school choice programs aim to function as an equalizing mechanism for unequal markets, enabling low-income and under-resourced families to participate in the marketplace of school choice in which upper-class families regularly engage. However, the drive towards choice and freedom presented by charter schools has become embedded within the ideological matrix of neoliberalism. This chapter focuses on Kenosha, Wisconsin's public education system as a key instance of the redefinition of choice. The downtown of Kenosha, Wisconsin buttresses against Lake Michigan, and sweeping views of the stretching blue-green horizon interrupt the rows of concrete buildings. Since 1902, the town has hosted automobile manufacturing plants, including those of the American Motors Corporation and later, the Chrysler Corporation.
