"Privatization of America's Public Institutions" describes the transformation of the military, K-12 public schools, public universities and colleges, and prisons into enterprises focused on generating profits for a select few. In many cases, privatization has limited accessibility, promoted segregation, fueled declining standards,…

This article deals with the issue of privatisation(s) in the field of education. In doing so, it focuses on three distinct, although interrelated, processes currently being experienced in the Italian education system: (a) the widening of the spaces for private schooling; (b) the ongoing privatisation of policy and the related blurring of the…

Educational publishing corporations and media corporations in the United States have been converging, especially through the promotion of standardization, testing, and for-profit educational technologies. Media and technology companies--including News Corp, Apple, and Microsoft--have significantly expanded their presence in public schools to sell…

Key legislative objectives for the US Federal educational policy over the past several decades relied heavily on quasi-market strategies (such as school rating, school closure, the contracting out of schools) as central levers in "reforming" public schools. Using financial data on 11 national for-profit firms contracting with schools and…

Before signing on with a private firm to manage schools, school boards should consider whether privatization will save the school district and the taxpayers money, lessen bureaucracy, and lead to higher test scores or other objective measures of improvement. In addition, boards should ask whether the proposal is free of bias and whether the…

What exactly is globalization, and how often does it manifest itself? What spheres of human activity does it affect, and how does it affect them? What implications does this phenomenon have for education systems and for educational planning? This booklet examines what globalization implies for the context in which education-sector work is carried…

Education in both England and the United States has undergone a profound change over the last two decades as part of neo-liberal and neoconservative political reforms. The reforms have been characterized by efforts to standardize the curriculum, to implement standardized tests in order to hold students, teachers, and schools accountable, to…