New Localism in the Neoliberal Era: Local District Response to Voluntary Open-School Markets in Ohio

Jin Lee

doi:10.1177/21582440211022288

Abstract

Local education governance has allowed neighborhood schools to offer community-oriented curricula and activities, and public schools have been operated to serve only residents’ children within the defined areas. The rise of neoliberalism may, however, undermine political foundations of the traditional political systems. This article explores how self-governed local education authorities function and evolve under neoliberalism by revisiting core values in localism and neoliberalism. By looking into the voluntary open-enrollment policy in Ohio, this study finds that the local governments surrounded by dissimilar neighborhoods are more likely to depend on the mechanism of localism to protect local authorities and locational privileges. This research argues that neoliberal policies safeguard community interests by deeply engaging with interchanging resources across their borders in regional market environments.

Highlights

Localized public policies have been expected to better comprehend community circumstances and meet residents’ preferences
As federal and state governments have recently addressed neoliberal policies and business-like practices, the convergence of neoliberalism and localism in the public policy sector calls for a new political foundation for local politics and community driven initiatives
As a decision on interdistrict student transfer is made at the school district level and the policy becomes in effect for children by local education agency, this study focuses on 49 school districts in the Cleveland metropolitan area and 60 school districts in the Columbus metropolitan region

Summary

Introduction

Localized public policies have been expected to better comprehend community circumstances and meet residents’ preferences. As a case in point, interdistrict open-enrollment, which is a noncompulsory school policy in many states, has been widely introduced to facilitate student transfers across school district boundaries by expanding school options for children in less-advantaged communities.

Results

Conclusion