Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Politics and International Relations

Reader 1

Owen Brown

Reader 2

Vanessa Tyson

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

2024 Lindsay R Ravetz

Abstract

When Michael Bloomberg became mayor of New York City in 2002, he employed a free-market approach to address the challenges of New York City’s public school system. He strongly embraced charter school expansion, a controversial topic due to the privately-owned, publicly-funded model. He permitted charter schools to operate rent-free in “underutilized” district-owned buildings, already inhabited by traditional public schools. Increased co-locations, where multiple schools share a building, sparked protests, lawsuits, and opposition in public hearings, yet co-location proposals were nearly always approved. Issues of co-locations have remained sparse during the Eric Adams administration; however, a recently passed class size reduction policy is likely to disproportionately impact co-located schools. In this thesis, I examine community input in co-location processes under the Bloomberg administration and Adams administration using Critical Discourse Analysis to examine power dynamics between the Department of Education and the public, and the exclusion of community input. I find that co-location processes, especially under Bloomberg, prioritized charter schools, and consequently neglected community feedback. Unethical co-location processes demonstrated systemic neglect of traditional public schools, which will continue to be disproportionately affected by the new class size law. Processes of co-locating charter and traditional public schools suggest the adverse impacts on resources and services in traditional public schools if public education continues being privatized.

Download

This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

Share

COinS