Practising citizenship in new spaces: Rights and realities of charter school activism

In the past two decades, the role of the state and the role of the citizen have changed in public education in the US. In order to give parents the ‘right to choose’ their children's schools, federal, state and district-level legislation has enabled experimental forms of education and new kinds of schools to be funded with public money. The legal framework guiding the charter school movement gives the citizenry the ‘right’ to design and manage charter schools with taxpayers' dollars. This neo-liberal turn in public education provides the potential for unprecedented participation by citizens in the public school system. This paper explores the legislative changes at a variety of scales that have essentially reconstructed the possibilities for and meaning of citizenship for many parents and community members. The creation of a charter school in the Grant Park neighbourhood of Atlanta, Georgia, offers a look at the new volunteer subject-citizens who operate in increasingly privatised public schools. The ability of individuals to participate in voluntary, privately managed institutions such as charter schools is contingent on having the social, cultural and economic resources to do so. Furthermore, the scale at which these citizens act is localised, highlighting the local, neighbourhood scale as the most salient for citizen participation. The role of private groups in public institutions such as charter schools raises questions about the degree to which these new spaces advance social justice in light of changes in the state's delivery of public services.