DECONSTRUCTING THE MARGINALIZATION OF “UNDERCLASS” STUDENTS: DISCIPLINARY ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION

I. India Geronimo

Abstract

Disciplinary alternative education programs have the potential to marginalize students by separating and permanently tracking them out of the mainstream school system into an underclass of the educational community. The students who are funneled into alternative education programs are often those students who are perceived to be undesirable and low-achieving. Marginalizing these students is attractive because it: 1) is an immediate method for relieving school administrator fatigue; 2) it is an extension of the zero tolerance and punitive approach that has plagued the criminal justice system and is a politically attractive manner for administrators and politicians to appear “tough on crime”; 3) it reduces students’ competition for resources; 4) rids school officials of the task of educating problem students; and 5) artificially boosts accountability testing scores.

The proliferation of disciplinary alternative education programs is reflective of the manners in which punitive policies may be an effective method for maintaining social control over the underclass. Alternative education students are frequently removed from the mainstream education for minor incidents of misconduct and may find themselves trapped in these programs for years. To ensure that all students are given a fair opportunity at having a decent education, policies that purposefully dis-incentivize exclusion and marginalization must be adopted if traditionally marginalized students are to have a real chance at being educated in respectful learning environments.