ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to reveal a troubling dissonance between the key approaches of education reform at some charter schools and the employment practices that they endorse or embody. Marxist conceptions of productive activity, labor, and alienation can be powerful tools in examining the philosophical foundations and limitations of many charter schools within the education reform movement. Outside of the charter network, the status of teachers' jobs across the country has become more tenuous in recent years. EMO charter school teachers expressed feeling a lack of autonomy in their classrooms. EMO governing boards are also kept closely in check by corporate overseers rather than by community members at meetings or local elections. EMO charter schools are often run by corporations housed far from the community where the school actually operates, and principals and teachers may be imported into that community to staff the school.
