ABSTRACT
Education policy-making is frequently understood as a rational process: decisions are shaped by evidence and ongoing assessment of which intervention promotes the widest possible good. The rational understanding of policy formation and implementation does not account for dynamics of unequal power or the ways in which relations of supremacy and subordination influence education reform. The exchange that opened this chapter represents one such challenge. Critical race policy analysis centers race and racial power in the examination of education reform.The racial history that has shaped and continues to shape educational policy and law—a reality that critical race policy analysts emphasize—is an absent presence in the rational model. The Fordham Institute is a generously endowed think tank and policy shop that sponsors “a growing portfolio of charter schools in Ohio”. The racial history that has shaped and continues to shape educational policy and law—a reality that critical race policy analysts emphasize—is an absent presence in the rational model.
