Moral Precarity of Teaching in Neoliberal Times—and Why the Public Should Care With Teachers

Doing good work as a public school teacher in the U.S. has become increasingly challenging in recent times as the education system remains under the assault of neoliberal reform and austerity measures. In this paper, I work towards arguing that the larger social order, where possible, should provide the conditions necessary for teachers to fulfil their responsibilities of care in schools. In arguing this, I follow care scholars Eva Kittay and Sarah Clark Miller in underscoring our responsibilities toward caregivers who attend to persons reliant on the care of others to survive and flourish. Both authors, in separate articles in a recently published book, bring to our attention the moral precarity encountered by caregivers and care workers working in a neoliberal age. 1 Using the experience of a teaching veteran working in a high-needs urban school,