School business officials from 10 large urban school districts express their concerns about school size, deteriorating buildings, lack of parental involvement and parenting skills, obsolete business systems, loss of public support, retrofitting for technology, privatization, and low-bid construction results. Violent behavior and criminal incidents…

Outsourcing has been proposed as a method for improving effectiveness and productivity in Australian public library service. Developments, drawbacks, and potentials are discussed, and differences between contracting out whole services as opposed to selected activities are examined. (AEF)

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…

Rejecting the voucher concept for promoting unequal education, this article endorses the "public/private partnership" model of reinvented school governance. Under this system, teachers and administrators remain public employees but are managed by a private company. Jay P. Goldman's sidebar criticizes privatization schemes as unworkable…

Discusses the economic impact of government-produced electronic information. Examples of government prices for electronic information products are given; the debate over the privatization of government information dissemination is addressed, including examples from various government agencies; government bulletin board services are described; and…

Many local and state governments have established programs to increase the number of government contracts awarded to minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs). A question-answer format addresses concerns local school officials may have about North Carolina's M/WBE programs as they relate to school contracting. (MLF)

Although Latin America once was a focal point for student activism, decline of activism is now obvious. Macropolitical causes include the legacy of authoritarian rule, redemocratization, and decline of the left. Unprecedented growth, privatization, intellectual change, and research trends have changed the conditions for activism in higher…

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…

Education Alternatives, Inc., is under contract to the Baltimore City Public Schools (Maryland) to provide educational service to eight elementary and one middle school. A program called "Tesseract" uses a systemic approach to ensure continuous quality. (MLF)

Considers television viewing practices during special events. Examines how audiences organize around such programing and whether this organization changes the understanding of audience connectiveness. Considers connectiveness and privatization in conjunction with conceptions of the public sphere, reviews literature on media events, and applies…

Documents the transformation of a subsidized international development project into a for-profit "environmental enterprise," an ecological business run by and for small-scale fishermen on Colombia's Caribbean coast. Demonstrates the need for development projects to become businesses and the critical role of social investments (literacy…

Increasingly, colleges and universities are privatizing housing, attracted to the limited financial outlay and involvement in management. Critics fear that institutions' financial positions will be compromised if the private developers have problems, and that institutions will lose control of financial aspects and quality of residence-hall life,…

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…

Argues that the failure to remember the civic purpose of education affects the place public schools hold in society. Believes that public schools are the means for educating students to become responsible citizens emphasizing the value of the public school and its capacity to promote the common good. (CMK)