This paper discusses privatization of public higher education, noting that some form of it exists on almost every college campus and that it is part of the wider movement toward less government. Four models of privatization are defined: public production with public finance; public production with private finance; private production with public…

This interview with Milton Friedman addresses his economic policies and how they might improve American public education. Highlights include teachers' unions and their negative impact on education, private schools and tax relief, the Edison Project, privatization of educational services, special needs students, California's Educational Freedom…

The $300 billion-a-year public education market has many private investors salivating--until they confront the complexity of school management and teacher unions' resistance. Private companies want to shift the school board's role from sole proprietor to purchaser of educational services. Sidebars advise superintendents and describe 15 private…

A former U.S. commissioner of education wonders if privatization and vouchers represent threats, annoyances, or utopias. Private contracting could hinder community involvement and the teacher professionalization movement. Profit-making goals might resolve class size policy in favor of economic efficiency, not student learning. Vouchers will reduce…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) plan moves toward proficiency in basic-skills development but ultimately shrinks the notion of educational excellence for all children, occasioning fallacies but not addressing compelling matters that relate to quality, equity and academic achievement for all students. The plan would set up public schools as examples of…

Debunks two fantasies: the feasibility of a free-market educational system and the idea that greater choice automatically means better schools. Public education is too labor-intensive and undercapitalized to be profitable. Communities need "skunk works" schools of choice to do research and development and smaller, collaboratively managed…

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,…

The school system's uniformity is clearly a liability in the modern era. Today's schools need entrepreneurship, not change by rule, regulation, and statute. The central issue of entrepreneurship is not risk-taking, but innovative, implementation methods. Eventually, using private contractors to improve the management of instructional services will…

The growing movement to privatize school management is a reason for comparing compensation and responsibilities in the private and public sectors. Despite the enormous salary gaps, public outrage over superintendents' salaries is common. Sensitive taxpayers might favor superintendent contracts including pay-for-performance factors resembling those…

Since the election of the Campbell government in 2001, teachers have experienced heightened conflict with the provincial government. An analysis of the discourse and power relations between the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and government reveals a neo-liberal agenda on the part of government and anti-neo-liberalism on the part of the BCTF.…

School franchising (defined as the replication of a particular product or service across a wide geographic region) marks a radical departure from the traditional view of the community-based neighborhood school. This paper reports on a study of a growing niche of charter school private management contracts in Massachusetts. The focus is on the…

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…

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…

A review of five sets of educational goals reveals an emphasis on academic and social goals over economic goals. This contrasts with current concerns for the economic utility of education and for increased accountability. Primary agents for achieving both academic and economic goals are strong central control of objectives but school-based…

Explores: (1) historical incorporation of degree-granting institutions in the United States as non-profit and the role of the State in provision of non-profit higher education; (2) benefits and challenges of non-profit and for-profit organizational forms in higher education; and (3) growth in commercial or for-profit behavior in research…