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“It's As Political a Choice As You'll Ever Make”: a Qualitative Case Study Of University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2020 “It’s as political a choice as you’ll ever make”: A Qualitative Case Study of Middle-Class, White Parents Navigating School Choice David Andrew Appleton University of Tennessee, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Appleton, David Andrew, "“It’s as political a choice as you’ll ever make”: A Qualitative Case Study of Middle-Class, White Parents Navigating School Choice. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2020. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/5830 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by David Andrew Appleton entitled "“It’s as political a choice as you’ll ever make”: A Qualitative Case Study of Middle-Class, White Parents Navigating School Choice." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Teacher Education. Judson Laughter, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Lisa Driscoll, Jennifer Morrow, Stergios Botzakis Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) “It’s As Political A Choice As You’ll Ever Make”: A Qualitative Case Study Of Middle-Class, White Parents Navigating School Choice A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville David A. Appleton May 2020 ii For Beth None of this would have been possible if not for you. To Ronan “Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.” ― Cormac McCarthy, The Road iii Acknowledgements I am thankful for the wonderful ways in which I have been forever changed by this experience. I can only hope that my commitment to education and equity will continue to grow half as much through the rest of my life as much as it has the last four years. Prior to this year of my life it was hard to imagine just how much time and effort could go into a single project of this size. There was no way to know when I started this project what all it would entail, nor how it would change from inception to defense. While the process was arduous, I am excited for what happens next. This excitement and the accompanying opportunities would not be possible without the help and support of so many people in my life. Thank you to my advisor and mentor throughout this experience, Dr. Jud Laughter, who gave me the freedom and inspiration to pursue the research I was interested in. To Drs. Botzakis, Driscoll, and Morrow, thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge and thank you most of all for your patience throughout the many permutations of this study. Thank you to the many peers, professors, and teachers I have had the pleasure of learning from and working with during my time at UT. I would never have been able to even start this process without the support of my friends and family. I am proud to count myself amongst you. Thank you especially to my parents for their limitless support. My mother for her unwavering faith in me; my father for teaching me discipline, and that it is often better to listen far more than you speak (even if I’m still working on it). Thank you to those parents who volunteered for this project and were willing to tell me of their experiences. I appreciate the willingness with which each of you shared your stories. iv Abstract For the better part of three decades, charter schools have been seen as a successful bipartisan solution to the difficulties plaguing the American education system. While much of the political rhetoric surrounding school choice suggests an overwhelming influence on public education and that it has either been a resounding success or a total failure, the reality is slightly more muddled. In order to see that muddled reality more clearly, in this dissertation I utilize qualitative case study methodology to investigate the ways in which neoliberal language manifests itself in the way three white, middle-class families in Tennessee perceive public and charter school quality, as well as discuss their overall opinions of American education. It was my hope that by studying the perceptions of parents regarding school quality and any neoliberal rhetoric that might affect these perceptions, I could begin to understand the politically charged rhetoric in support of and against school choice in comparison to what is actually important to the families dealing most with its existence. These three parents utilized three different methods of school choice in an effort to achieve the best possible public education for their children. These parents enrolled their child[ren] in a charter school, relocated to a new school zone, and/or utilized within district transfers. Overall, the parents held a high esteem for public education, in some cases working for years to find a high quality traditional public school for their children. Parents also displayed significant skepticism of charter schools and school choice reforms on a national level, but trusted these institutions and procedures when they had a proven, local record of success. That being said, these parents affirmed that their first choice for education would be a strong and robust traditional public school system, even if they were reticent to outright state an opposition to school choice. These findings suggest that parents would prefer more funding and effort be v put in to fixing traditional public schools than enforcing and expanding school choice reforms informed by neoliberal economic theory. vi Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM ................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Context: The American School Choice Movement ................................................................ 3 Neoliberalism ............................................................................................................................. 3 Friedman and Hayek. .............................................................................................................. 4 Pushback against neoliberalism and Human Capital. ............................................................. 6 Discourse of failing schools. ................................................................................................... 9 School Choice .......................................................................................................................... 10 Voucher programs. ................................................................................................................ 11 Charter programs. ................................................................................................................. 15 Current State of School Choice ............................................................................................. 19 Purpose of Study ..................................................................................................................... 21 Research Questions ................................................................................................................. 22 Theoretical Framework .......................................................................................................... 23 Document Organization ......................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................ 28 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .......................................................................................... 28 Overview .................................................................................................................................. 28 A History of Tennessee Charter School Legislation ............................................................ 29 Failed Tennessee School Choice Legislation ........................................................................ 32 Tennessee Compared to North Carolina .............................................................................. 36 Private Sector Influences on Charter Schools and School Choice ..................................... 38 School choice philanthropy in Tennessee. ............................................................................ 42 School Accountability Metrics in Tennessee ........................................................................ 43 Parental Perceptions of School Quality ................................................................................ 46 Traditional perceptions of school quality. ...........................................................................
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