Corporatizing Rural Education: Neoliberal Globalization and Reaction in the United States

167 Pages·2018·1.594 MB·English

by  Jason A. Cervone (auth.)

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New Frontiers in Education, Culture, and Politics
Series editor
Kenneth J. Saltman
University of Massachusetts, Boston
North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA
New Frontiers in Education, Culture, and Politics focuses on both topical
educational issues and highly original works of educational policy and
theory that are critical, publicly engaged, and interdisciplinary, drawing on
contemporary philosophy and social theory. The books in the series aim to
push the bounds of academic and public educational discourse while
remaining largely accessible to an educated reading public. New Frontiers
aims to contribute to thinking beyond the increasingly unified view of
public education for narrow economic ends (economic mobility for the
individual and global economic competition for the society) and in terms
of efficacious delivery of education as akin to a consumable commodity.
Books in the series provide both innovative and original criticism and offer
visions for imagining educational theory, policy, and practice for radically
different, egalitarian, and just social transformation.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14741
Jason A. Cervone
Corporatizing Rural
Education
Neoliberal Globalization and Reaction
in the United States
Jason A. Cervone
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA
New Frontiers in Education, Culture, and Politics
ISBN 978-3-319-64461-5 ISBN 978-3-319-64462-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-64462-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017954291
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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For Emily
A
cknowledgments
This book began as my doctoral dissertation, so first and foremost I must
express my gratitude to my advisor Kenneth Saltman, without whose
insights and guidance these ideas never could have been connected to
form a coherent project. This book also would not have been possible
without the faculty and staff at UMass Dartmouth, particularly João
Paraskeva, Ricardo Rosa, Sheila Macrine, and Leila Rosa, as well as my
dissertation group Teresa Cruz and Michael Savaria, and the rest of Cohort
3. An earlier version of Chap. 3 appears in the Review of Education,
Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies and would not have been possible without
the editorial skills of Tyler Pollard. Special thanks must also go to Renie
Avery, Juan Lopez, and Lisa DiMartino for their patience while I balanced
school and work. Eric Cervone and John Cervone, whom I can always
look to for different perspectives. Finally, none of this would have been
possible without the love and support of Emily Holden-Cervone, who
made the effort to read through everything to ensure I was actually mak-
ing sense.
vii
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
Part I Consequences of Neoliberal Corporatization 11
2 Corporatizing Rural Schools 13
3 Religious and Market Fundamentalisms 39
4 Environmental Sacrifice 67
Part II Abstraction of Space and Minds 93
5 Production of Rural Space 95
6 Destructive Identities 123
7 Conclusion 151
Index 159
ix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
It is still too early for a postmortem on American politics, as it will be years
before the fallout can be properly assessed, but it is fair to say that the elec-
tion of Donald Trump to the US Presidency may have signaled the end of
the political establishment in the United States as we know it. As poll after
poll came in showing an inevitable victory for Hillary Clinton, it seemed as
though the status quo of neoliberalism with identity politics mixed in
would be enough to overcome the frightening rhetoric that was emerging
from the Republican side. However, rural America saw a large population
of angry, white men and women come out in droves to the shock of the
media and political establishment alike. Pundits were quick to jump to
conclusions about what could have spurred such an event. Many claimed it
racial; a white backlash to eight years of a black president, or that it was a
deep-seated misogyny that still runs through the country. Others claimed
that it was economic anger stirred from years of living in poverty watching
industries decline and jobs moved overseas. Others still explained that it
was a response to years of being ignored by mainstream politics. All of these
explanations are valid, but none seem to go deep enough or to recognize
the nuances and connections between all the issues being raised. There is a
deeper structural problem that manifests itself in these racist and misogy-
nist behaviors that come to a head in rural areas in the United States.
The white supremacists and neo-Nazis do exist and are a very real prob-
lem. The rampant misogyny directed at Clinton is also a serious problem.
© The Author(s) 2018 1
J.A. Cervone, Corporatizing Rural Education,
New Frontiers in Education, Culture, and Politics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64462-2_1
2 1 INTRODUCTION
But these issues alone do not explain the groundswell of support Trump
received. Rather, this is the result of a large, extremely angry population
that lacks the ability to articulate or properly channel that anger. While
there is no excuse for the horribly sexist things said about Hillary Clinton,
to believe that she lost because rural voters would not consent to being
ruled by a woman is short-sighted and misunderstands both the realities of
rural political and economic life as well as what Clinton truly represents to
the rural underclass. As much as this was a vote for authoritarianism, it was
also a vote against political elitism. Identity politics aside, Hillary Clinton
epitomizes the political elite that has been out of touch with rural life in the
United States for decades. The democratic belief that it was her turn because
she was most qualified due to her experience and longevity in the political
elite runs counter to most ideals held in rural America. Again, this is not to
say misogyny does not exist or was not a large factor in the election. Hatred
of women in general is as ingrained and structural in the society as racism,
but it is not the reason for Clinton’s loss. Rather it is general apathy toward
this misogyny that allows people to overlook the things that Trump has
said. It is also unlikely a Clinton presidency would have done much to
change that. Like President Obama and Bill Clinton before her, Hillary
Clinton would have spent the majority of her term placating her Wall Street
friends and maybe dabbling slightly in identity politics possibly improving
family leave and speaking for equal wages in order to maintain a veneer of
Progressivism. Most likely she would have pursued a neoliberalized form of
feminism that lionizes female CEOs as if the way to equality is for women
to increase their representation in patriarchal capitalism rather than struggle
against the system that creates their oppression in the first place.
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild describes this phenomenon, writing that
many rural Americans feel as if they are unwanted in their own country.
She writes that from their experience they witness:
Strangers step ahead of you in line, making you anxious, resentful, and
afraid. A president allies with the line cutters, making you feel distrustful,
betrayed. A person ahead of you in line insults you as an ignorant redneck,
making you feel humiliated and mad. Economically, culturally politically,
you are suddenly a stranger in your own land.1
Hochschild captures perfectly the anxieties felt by the rural underclass
along with trying to understand their feelings of betrayal and anger at a
political elite that claims to represent the interests of the most oppressed