Abstract
This article argues that the recent national reports on educational reform must be understood as manifestations of the influence of capital and the state. The considerable pressure exerted on the schools by representatives of state capitalism does not guarantee that the proposed reforms will be enacted, however. The contradictory nature of the school's location in the democratic capitalist state, coupled with various forms of teacher and student resistance to the reports' recommendations, afford the opportunity for progressive educators to strip away the mystique of the school as a neutral site and to challenge the dominant ideology.
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A somewhat different version of this paper will appear in Shea, C., Sola, P., & Kahane, E., (eds.),The New Servants of Power: A Critique of the 1980's School Reform Movement. Greenwood Press (forthcoming).
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Berman, E.H. The state's stake in educational reform. Urban Rev 18, 6–18 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01112119
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01112119