A crusade and the crowd of the dead: Understanding the logic of the U.S. right’s attacks on public education

Abstract

Recognizing that the American right, and specifically the Christian right, has achieved disproportionate power over shaping the landscape of education policy and political culture, the following engages in a twofold analysis of schooling in the United States. We consider the structural transformations that are being enacted as a result of the proliferation of (Christian) public charters and other privatization efforts as well as reactionary undertakings that have purposefully targeted the daily life of schools from administration to curriculum and pedagogy since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (for example: disruptions at school board meetings, threatening school officials, anti-LGBTQ and anti-anti-racism hysteria, among others). We put these minoritarian interjections in conversation with Elias Canetti’s “crowd of the dead” and consider the effects of this political activity in producing civic and social death while seeking to destabilize public institutions and institutional arrangements that should safeguard against the manufacturing of (civic) death.

Keywords:

• Christian right
• privatization
• civic and social death
• Canetti
• fascism

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Hillsdale/BCSI’s partnership seems to be unsettled in light of comments Hillsdale’s Larry Arnn made about public school teachers at a private reception in Franklin, TN. In his remarks, Arnn said that teachers are “trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.” The ill-informed and misplaced ire was not lost on Tennesseans, especially Republicans in the state legislature, who swiftly condemned the comments and promised to thwart Hillsdale initiatives in Tennessee (see Olmstead, 2022). The effects of Arnn’s rancor on Hillsdale/BCSI’s national interests will have to be seen. Only days after Tennessee Republicans rebuked Arnn, DeadlineDetroit (2022) reported that Hillsdale/BCSI will be opening a partner school in Grosse Pointe, MI, taking advantage of local disputes over the direction of Grosse Pointe Public Schools.

2 For evidence of the vast sums of money circulating through charter schools, “non-profit” or otherwise, and an overview of the very secretive financial world of NHA, see the report by Burris and Cimarusti (2021).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Ferris

Eric Ferris, a secondary math teacher and graduate from Eastern Michigan University’s Educational Studies program, has researched and published on links between schooling and politics as well as education’s role in differentially valuating students and constructing social orders.

Christopher G. Robbins

Christopher G. Robbins, Professor of Social Foundations and Director of the PhD in Educational Studies at Eastern Michigan University has researched and published on criminalization and militarization, and social and education policy inclusive of higher education, class politics, and structural racism.