During the early 1970s, over 150 school districts and several states contracted with private companies to deliver instruction, and the Nixon Administration initiated a vast privatization field experiment in Texarkana. None of these performance contracting experiments significantly improved instruction. Instead, they raised issues of staffing,…

Discusses whether the alternatives to traditional education that were promoted in the past decade have lived up to their promise of creating a school environment that is conducive to learning for all students, focusing on magnet schools, educational vouchers, privatization and charter schools, and home schooling. (SM)

Discusses the pros and cons of privatization as a way of saving money while improving non-educational operations. Questions about why some services should be kept in-house are addressed, as well as what to look for when considering outsourcing. One school's experience with outsourcing health-care services is highlighted. (GR)

In coping with the challenges of globalization, various reform measures, in the field of social policy, have been initiated in post-Mao China. Strategies such as privatization, marketization, commodification and societalization have been adopted to redefine the relationship between the state, the market and other non-state sectors involved in…

Information technology plays an increasingly prominent role in the strategic initiatives of higher education institutions. Technology projects are becoming the largest projects on campus, approaching funding levels of bricks and mortar investments. Information systems are viewed as critical in attracting high-quality faculty, staff, and students,…

The for-profit management of public schools by for-profit corporations continues to be a controversial innovation. Proponents argue for-profit schools will result in educational improvement by harnessing the profit seeking motive of the marketplace. Competition, they maintain, forces companies to earn their profits by reducing administrative…

The University of the District of Columbia's radio station, whose mission was to play jazz and report on local public affairs and whose black audience was the fourth-largest of the nation's public radio outlets, has been sold due to financial problems. Critics are concerned that this and other such sales undermine the core mission of public…

Reviews the factors influencing the political and information climate related to privatization during the Reagan administration, and describes some of the resulting microform products and services that provide federal information. The effects of privatization and related information policies on the availability of federal information are evaluated…

The Australian Commonwealth government's desire to create a national policy for teacher education must be seen in the context of broader economic restructuring, which has assumed a metapolicy status and subsumed all policy domains. This brand of corporate federalism is commendable only as the Hawke Labor government's alternative to privatization.…

The Philippine higher education system, in which a high proportion of students attend private institutions because of limited space in public institutions, is examined in light of hypotheses about the impact of substantial private provision. The system is discussed, and private and public institutions are compared. Policy implications are…

A search consultant describes the process of selecting Peter Hutchinson of Public Strategies, Inc., to head Minneapolis (Minnesota) schools. The board negotiated a contract of performance-based compensation for services provided by Hutchinson's firm, with Hutchinson as superintendent. (MLF)

Although the District of Columbia school board requested additional study on student performance in schools where private firms currently have contracts, the superintendent explains his rationale for requesting private management for some 10 to 15 schools. (MLF)

Considers problems that have arisen with the vast quantities of information available as a result of the popularity of computers. Topics include inequity; capitalism, commodification, and privatization; hacking, privacy, and fraud; censorship; monitoring and surveillance; cyberethics; and integrity in an age of electronic communication. (LRW)

Assistant Superintendent Steve Kramer explains that the primary objective of privatization in Madeira (Ohio) schools was to create more time for administrators to spend on educational issues. Transportation, food service, and custodial services are run by private companies. (MLF)

How is the new industrial model of privatization, commercialization, and corporatization altering higher education's traditional mission? To provide policymakers with understanding about the traditional charter between higher education and society, this article defines the concepts of the public good underlying the charter, analyzes the new…