Privatizing Education

Privatizing Education is a collection of essays written by such luminaries as Arthur Levine, Martin Carnoy, Caroline Persell, Amy Stuart Wells, Geoffrey Walford, Gary Natriello, and Peter Cookson who examine one of the hottest topics in education today -- the efforts by some groups and lobbyists to move education from the public to the private sector. This is occurring through tuition tax credits, vouchers, and some charter school initiatives. The volume grows out of a conference that took place at Columbia University Teachers College called "Setting the Agenda".

Eighteen experts, including Albert Shanker, Ernest L. Boyer, Thomas Kean, and John Menge, examine the issues surrounding educational choice in public school systems and the voucher system for private schools. They discuss when choice should be considered, methods of implementation, and the extent to which government should be involved. Descriptions and evaluations of choice programs that have been implemented are presented. The book includes contributions from both supporters and opponents of choice presented within an academic framework to enhance examination, debate, and analysis. Since 37 states have adopted legislation that provides some kind of choice in the public education system, the issues involved will be important to school boards, educational administrators, public policy makers, parents, and taxpayers.

This book challenges readers to consider the consequences of commercialism and business influences on and in schools. Critical essays examine the central theme of commercialism via a unique multiplicity of real-world examples. Topics include: privatization of school food services; oil company ads that act as educational policy statements; a parent's view of his child's experiences in a school that encourages school-business partnerships; commercialization and school administration; teacher union involvement in the school-business partnership craze currently sweeping the nation; links between education policy and the military-industrial complex; commercialism in higher education, including marketing to high school students, intellectual property rights of professors and students, and the bind in which professional proprietary schools find themselves; and the influence of conservative think tanks on information citizens receive, especially concerning educational issues and policy.Schools or Markets? Commercialism, Privatization, and School-Business Partnerships is compelling reading for all researchers, faculty, students, and education professionals interested in the connections between public schools and private interests. The breadth and variety of topics addressed make it a uniquely relevant text for courses in social and cultural foundations of education, sociology of education, educational politics and policy, economics of education, philosophy of education, introduction to education, and cultural studies in education.

A heated debate is raging over our nation’s public schools and how they should be reformed, with proposals ranging from imposing national standards to replacing public educationnbsp;altogether with a voucher system for private schools. Combining decades of experience in education, the authors propose an innovative approach to solving the problems of our school system and find a middle ground between these extremes. Reinventing Public Education shows how contracting would radically change the way we operate our schools, while keeping them public and accessible to all, and making them better able to meet standards of achievement and equity. Using public funds, local school boards would select private providers to operate individual schools under formal contracts specifying the type and quality of instruction. In a hands-on, concrete fashion, the authors provide a thorough explanation of the pros and cons of school contracting and how it would work in practice. They show how contracting would free local school boards from operating schools so they can focus on improving educational policy; how it would allow parents to choose the best school for their children; and, finally, how it would ensure that schools are held accountable and academic standards are met. While retaining a strong public role in education, contracting enables schools to be more imaginative, adaptable, and suited to the needs of children and families. In presenting an alternative vision for America’s schools, Reinventing Public Education is too important to be ignored.

This insightful look at American education explores difficult but realistic solutions to the education dilemma. Focusing on parent/student choice and deregulation or privatization of public schools, the authors suggest that these two ingredients would revitalize American education. Reform efforts within the present government monopolistic system will inevitably fail because this system ignores basic laws of human behavior. Rinehart and Lee argue that increased choice and unencumbered competition among schools result in dramatic educational improvement. Written for professionals and laymen, this volume views the American educational system from a provocative new perspective.

The presentation of a practical model showing how three schools dealt with privatization. This study asks whether privatization is a means of improving education and discusses the issues central to successful privatization including the choices for parents.