“Innovative” Educational Finance: The Role of Financial Capital in Shaping Schooling
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Authors
Backer, David I.
Cohen, Dan
Date
2022-04-27
Type
book part
Language
en
Keyword
Education , Political Economy , Policy
Alternative Title
Abstract
Over the past several decades, critical scholars have documented the increasing power of financial capital (termed ‘financialization’) in shaping social structures and people’s everyday lives. Schools and other institutions of education are no exception from this trend. From the emergence of new, market-oriented educational structures such as charter schools to the increased use of educational technology (or EdTech) in classrooms, the connections between finance and changes to educational systems and practices have been clearly documented. These can take a multiplicity of forms, from bond issuances that connect school buildings to financial capital, to index funds that speculate in private sector EdTech companies, to new models of educational financing that attempt to blend financial and social goals to create positive ‘impact’ in student’s lives.
This chapter reviews multiple trends and case studies that highlight how processes of financial speculation have shaped educational policy and politics. Through these cases the distinctiveness of financialization as a political economic process, and its ramifications for education, are unpacked in order to highlight how schools and students are connected to the circulation of financial capital. Rather than a neutral, or technical process, the ‘gaze’ of finance is instead revealed to have powerful social and political effects that should be of concern to educators and educational scholars. Crucially, quantitative metrics that allow speculation are central to both how financial capital circulates through education and in shaping its effects on educational spaces.
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published in Handbook of Critical Approaches to Politics and Policy of Education by Routledge on 27 April 2022, available at Routledge at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003145356.
Citation
Backer, David I. & Cohen, Dan. “Innovative” Educational Finance: The Role of Financial Capital in Shaping Schooling (Chpt. 8) In: Saltman, K.J., & Nguyen, N. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook of Critical Approaches to Politics and Policy of Education (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003145356
Publisher
Routledge/Taylor & Francis