This paper focuses on the role of the World Bank and its subsidiaries in promoting the neoliberal educational reforms of privatization and decentralization globally and in El Salvador. Neoliberalism is first defined as a sociopolitical philosophy that supports concepts such as the free market, market-driven education, and the use of a voucher…

Addresses the legal interface between the privatization of school services and the politics of urban education. Considers the political forces both outside and within education, as well as the problem of privatization contracting undertaken without considering the legal ramifications. Offers suggestions for education leaders who may wish to…

Countries with good education systems have good health and transportation systems and equitable access to health care and public services. One must look at education in terms of inputs, not production or outputs. When healthy, well-fed, well-housed children enter an education system that provides transportation and access to books, dictionaries,…

A snapshot of the changing Polish educational system focuses on elimination of uniform curriculum requirements, return of religious instruction, emergence of private and religious schools, removal of overtly ideological materials from history and literature curricula, and fears of a power struggle between the present postcommunists and new…

Reviews the many dramatically different forms of school choice proposals, warning against implementing sharply limited and regulated school choice plans and arguing that if the failure of school choice is wrongly attributed to too much choice rather than too little, broader and freer experiments in choice could be politically doomed. Focuses on…

This article comments on Fullinwider and Lichtenberg's "Leveling the Playing Field". It reviews their central claims and comments on both their arguments and their reform proposals, and suggests alternative, bolder, egalitarian proposals which involve a higher degree of effective privatization than theirs. (Contains 1 note.)

This book examines the economics, history, and politics of education, asserting that public schools should be privatized. It suggests that privatized public schools can benefit from competition, market discipline, and the incentives essential to producing cost-effective, quality education and attracting additional funding and expertise needed to…

In Latin America private universities are a recent phenomenon; Uruguay began its experiment with privatization only 15 years ago. This study explores several factors which have impeded formation of private universities by analyzing the "failures" of three institutions. The theoretical framework of the study is based on work by D.C. Levy…

Although school boards are venerable U.S. institutions symbolizing local control and grass-roots determination, they do not work well and never have, despite establishment of superintendencies and privatization efforts. Needed reforms include establishing training and background requirements, banning educational conflicts of interest, strictly…

Arguing that the politicisation of decentralisation appreciably reduces educational quality and efficient resource allocation and negatively affects matters of equity in and delivery of education, the present study provides a critique of decentralisation and privatisation in education in Africa with special reference to Nigeria. On the basis of…

The author uses the "lifecourse" of one model--the community partnership plan--as a lens into school reform in Philadelphia, focusing particularly on the politics of school reform and Philadelphians' responses to privatization. The aim of the article is to show that education reform is not about the orderly implementation of a particular…

Squeezed by federal and city belt-tightening, Superintendent Franklin Smith is looking for new ways to fund the District of Columbia schools. These include contracting out food services, reduction in force, and closing old schools with maintenance problems. (MLF)

Public education is under attack. There is a general assault on the public sphere as a central aspect of our common existence. The problems of city schools stem from our failure to place educational reform within a broader vision of social and economic justice and our unwillingness to take political action to realize that vision. (MLH)

Contends that the Bush Administration's "America 2000" plan is a political and ideological statement that substitutes the logic of the market for the principles of democracy and ignores the need for multiculturalism in the schools. Provides some general recommendations for educational reform. (30 endnotes) (MLF)

Explores the role played by modernization policies of the government in promoting contemporary conflicts between private and public interests, using Mexico and Oregon's education systems as case studies. Finds modernization policies, especially the privatization of education, inappropriate in meeting social, political, and economic needs of both…