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Wiping Away the “Veneer of Democracy” to Expose the School-Level Effects of Arizona’s Language Policy

ABSTRACT Despite scant empirical support, Arizona’s restrictive language policy (Proposition 203, 2000) sustains as a result of the veneer of democracy (a political strategy that projects equitable inclinations while shielding inequitable ideologies). This article compares findings from an ethnographic study of one linguistically diverse Arizona high school with a critical analysis of the policy’s text to show how the policy’s veneer of democracy includes discourses of morality, opportunity, and rationality. These discourses conflict with and subjugate the microlevel realities of schools. The illustration of this tension implies a need to reexamine democracy in education from political and school levels.