Abstract:
This thesis explores the ideas of Diane Ravitch and Michelle Rhee as representatives of the contemporary American education reform debate in an attempt to examine the convergences between neo-liberal and liberal thought. It employs a symptomatic reading of the former's Reign of Error and the latter's Radical to uncover a shared orientation toward the question of labor and interrogate the democratic critique of neo-liberal reform agendas. The study finds that the omission of capitalism is characteristic of both and reveals commonalities between Ravitch and Rhee's orientation to the teaching profession. It concludes that liberal and neo-liberal reform proposals are virtually the same in this respect despite surface distinctions such as the former's commitment to democratic organization and latter's infatuation with market governance.
