Explains why private companies and schools doing business with one another may be harmful to students. Problems uncovered from a decade of commercialization in the classroom are discussed as are issues of for-profit companies seeking to take over the operation of public schools, and one attempt to impose legislation to curtail commercialism. (GR)

In this article, the author analyzes public education, and whether America can survive without it. There is a deep sense in which the phrase "public education" is redundant: Education is public, above all in a democracy. To think of it any other way is to rob it of its essential meaning. For education is an essential public good addressed to young…

We argue that the privatisation of education needs to be understood through an ethical lens, and suggest a broad framework through which privatisation policies and practices might be ethically audited. These policies and practices it is suggested are creating new ethical spaces and new clusters of goals, obligations and dispositions. Whatever the…

Charter schools are one form of decentralizing public education by shifting power into the hands of school stakeholders by providing them with more "voice" in day-to-day decisions. However, the increasing involvement of educational management organizations (EMOs) as managers of charter schools raises new questions about the influence of school…

The author discusses some of the ways in which certain elements of conservative modernization have had an impact on education at multiple levels. He points to the growth of commodifying logics and the audit culture that accompanies them. In the process, he highlights a number of dangers currently being faced. However, he urges us not to assume…

Dramatic changes are being made to teacher education internationally and in the United States. Some of the alterations have been recognized as threatening university-based teacher preparation, for instance, the growth of alternate route programs. Many other phenomena that have an impact on teacher education have not been analyzed as such,…

This paper provides a critical analysis of New Zealand's Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF). The first section sketches the development and implementation of the PBRF. The second section evaluates the scheme, concentrating on three themes: the relationship between privatization, competition and research performance; the standardization of…

Public-private partnerships in education exist in various forms around the world, in both developed and developing countries. Despite this, and despite the importance of human capital for economic growth, systematic analysis has been limited and scattered, with most scholarly attention going to initiatives in the United States. This volume helps…

In Europe a very intensive discussion is in full swing as to whether vocational schools should in future be guided and monitored by the state or whether they should be freed from state dependency. Within the framework of a number of pilot projects in German-speaking countries, vocational school centers are currently testing their autonomy. This…

Peter Blake reports on new legislations and reforms in Virginia that provide colleges and universities more operational and administrative autonomy in return for their commitment to public goals for higher education. He traces the history and context of privatization in Virgina from 1988. During this time, the legislatively mandated Virginia…

This paper is a case study of a Chinese educational leader who was in charge of an institution when it was in the process of being upgraded from a secondary vocational school to a self-funded tertiary vocational institution. Using a life history approach, the paper furnishes an informative picture capturing the dual transformation process of the…

From April 25 through June 30, 2007, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy conducted its fifth survey of the privatization of bus, food and janitorial services among Michigan's 552 conventional public school districts. All Michigan school districts responded. In 2007, the Mackinac Center also conducted a nationwide survey of state education…

The Chicago Public Schools, along with the city of Chicago itself, serve as an exemplary case of neoliberal reorganization, as corporate and governmental "leaders" remake Chicago into a global city meeting the needs of capitalism. As such, Chicago provides us with an example of "actually existing neoliberalism," in which…

In this article the author looks at the impact NCLB is having on teacher education programs, focusing on three major areas: who is entering teacher preparation programs; the experience they have while they are in those programs; and the experience they have while in the schools as student teachers. The increased focus on testing to determine who…

Substantial policy and political changes have resulted from a 2001 state takeover of the Philadelphia School District and the subsequent hiring of Paul Vallas as the district's new CEO. Using the lens of urban regime analysis, which emphasizes the importance of public and private actors in forming a governing coalition, this article analyzes the…