Profit, Power, and Pedagogy: The Minnesota READ Act

Purpose/Findings: This article examines Minnesota’s 2023 Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act as a case of racial-capitalist logistical governance in which equity-framed rhetoric is used to pass legislation that functions to commodify literacy education. This article interrogates how policy assemblages convert racial, cultural, and linguistic differences into administrable, deficit-based framings that can be “solved” with state-approved materials lists and interventions. For students and teachers, this process institutionalizes spirit murder (Williams, 1991; Love, 2019; 2023). Research Methods/Approach: This article is a critical policy analysis with design implications that examines the implementation of the Minnesota READ Act. It uses a genealogical policy analysis that traces the influence of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the Science of Reading movement. Local artifacts are scrutinized, including: district literacy plans, reports that illustrate Minnesota student behavioral intervention datasets, and CAREI curriculum reviews. Implications: This article proposes a spirit repair framework; dynamic, bilingual-normed assessment; translanguaging-rich curricula; and participatory procurement and accountability—to reorient literacy from technocratic remediation toward joy, identity, and collective liberation. This approach offers a practicable alternative for reimagining READ Act implementation.