State Power Without State Duties: Notes on Rightist Education in America

The U.S. right's programme for public education shows some of the same neoliberal, nativist, and authoritarian patterns as the countries discussed in this issue. In this comment, I discuss two implications of the recent rightward turn in federal and state educational thought in the United States. First, under right-wing governance, we are seeing a diminishment of the welfarist aspect of American public education. Second, we are seeing a weakening of the constitutional status of public education. I argue that these trends reveal the urgent necessity of affirming public education as a fundamental right protected by the U.S. Constitution.