RACE, PLACE, AND POLICY FORMATION: PUBLIC EDUCATION AND SCHOOL CHOICE DISCOURSE IN THE WASHINGTON POST, 2007-2012

Abstract

As the first city with a majority African American population and a school system that has long served majority low-income African American children, DC offers a compelling case study about public education and school choice in an increasingly affluent city. Using The Washington Post archive, this dissertation considers how discourse about one of the most vital public goods evolved between 2007 and 2012, a period of rapid economic, political, and social change in the city. DC is a civically engaged and diverse city and, The Washington Post has one of the most diverse newsrooms in the country. Post leadership and most writers and contributors were critical of policy and rulings that might cause greater racial segregation in American public schools. Yet, there was no discourse in this archive to suggest that encouraging greater racial or economic integration would be a successful campaign. Instead, The Post advocated for school reform and choice for the neediest students while seemingly absolving families with means who chose to opt out of the public school system. Failing to interrogate the school choices made by middle-class families represents a silence in the archive and illustrates how silence can be productive because it contributes toward the maintenance of a segregated public school system.