According to James Harvey, the scale of the 2011 effort to privatize public education through vouchers and charters is "staggering," representing the culmination of a 30-year assault on public service in general and public education in particular. At a time when states are staring into the abyss of bankruptcy, he notes, public funds intended for…

Shows the gradual deterioration of the U.S. public education system, beginning with a hypothetical school district's acceptance of Channel One programing with two-minute commercials in 1990 and ending with Educate America's offer to pick up any costs not already borne by private enterprise (in exchange for adopting the group's curriculum) by 2010.…

In her zeal to advocate greater public school choice, Raywid criticizes the ASCD's "Public Schools of Choice" report unfairly. Raywid denigrates the importance of balancing public and private interests, claims that choice demands a form of rigorous social experimentation unsupported by research, and overlooks the report's positive guidance for…

Tainted by failure, rooted in myth, and marked by questionable practice, public-private partnerships in education are risky. Performance contracting failed miserably in the 1970s. Faulty privatization rationales include myths surrounding SAT test scores and the "bloated bureaucracy" and "money doesn't matter" arguments. Neither…

Educators cannot withstand the inevitable advance of alternative education and privatization efforts. Luckily, no one alternative will become the ultimate solution. Visionary educators can respond by adapting to new management and governance concepts, expecting increased accountability, creating teams, maintaining a customer orientation, planning…

By pooling talents and resources of seasoned educators and the private sector, Education Alternatives, Inc. is invigorating school systems in several urban areas, including Dade County, Florida; Baltimore, Maryland; and Hartford, Connecticut. A private-public partnership has two advantages over conventionally managed districts: readily available…

An independent study of Baltimore City's Tesseract schools analyzes why the privately managed program failed. Results showed no gains on Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills scores. Baltimore was paying about 11% more per student than in comparison schools. EAI has succeeded in establishing the supremacy of Wednesday afternoons for staff development…

Reviews several privatization strategies and their applications to public education, including load-shedding, asset sales, volunteerism, self-help, user fees, contracting, franchises, vouchers, subsidies, and deregulation. The major forces promoting privatization in education are those stemming from growing discontent with the public sector and…

Summary of the "Fifth Annual Report of Trends in Schoolhouse Commercialism" prepared by the Educational Policy Studies Laboratory's Commercialism in Education Research Unit at Arizona State University (www.schoolcommercialism.org). Includes discussion of program and activity sponsorships, exclusive agreements, incentive programs,…

The Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Schools found that the number of press citations from 1990 to 2000 discussing seven types of commercializing activities (program sponsorship, exclusive agreements, incentive programs, appropriation of space, sponsored educational materials, electronic marketing, privatization, and fund raising)…

In the probusiness 1980s, marketing and public-relations schemes were characterized as legitimate contributions to the curriculum, helpful teaching aids, or effective school-business cooperation models. By the late 1980s, commercialism in schools had become so rampant that Channel One was regarded as a school-reform proposal. Today, profit-making…

Educational management organizations (EMOs) are for-profit, private companies that manage schools, including 10% of all charter schools. Major investment houses consider public education a $300 billion industry ripe for picking, due to three driving market forces--cost, quality, and consumer confidence. Three EMOs (TesseracT Group, Edison Project…

The Baltimore New Compact Schools model offers schools an opportunity to cluster their resources, personnel, and funds. The Hirsch Core Knowledge Curriculum helps all three elementary schools compensate for disadvantaged students' lost learning time. The nonprofit Enterprise Foundation offers schools leadership, management, and technical support.…

The two students who won commercial sponsorship for their college education embody entrepreneurialism's darker side-the growing commercialism of schools and conscious targeting of students as lifelong consumers. This update discusses developments in program, activity, and materials sponsorships; exclusive agreements; electronic marketing;…

Nonpublic school educational choice proposals are largely derived from monetarist economic and social theory and exemplify right-wing privatization goals. The U.S. health care system has plenty of competition among insurers, hospitals, and doctors; but it is the most expensive, least equitable system in the industrial world. The mystical belief…