The Privatization of Education

Education privatization is a global phenomenon that has crystallized in countries with very different cultural, political, and economic backgrounds. In this book, the authors examine how privatization policies are being adopted and why so many countries are engaging in this type of education reform. The authors explore the contexts, key personnel, and policy initiatives that explain the worldwide advance of the private sector in education, and identify six different paths toward education privatization—as a drastic state sector reform (e.g., Chile, the U.K.), as an incremental reform (e.g., the U.S.A.), in social-democratic welfare states, as historical public-private partnerships (e.g., Netherlands, Spain), as de facto privatization in low-income countries, and privatization via disaster.

Book Features:

• The first comprehensive, in-depth investigation of the political economy of education privatization at a global scale.
• An analysis of the different strategies, discourses, and agents that have contributed to advancing (and resisting) education privatization trends.
• An examination of the role of private corporations, policy entrepreneurs, philanthropic organizations, think-tanks, and teacher unions.

Antoni Verger is associate professor of education policy; Clara Fontdevila is a PhD candidate in sociology; Adrián Zancajo is a PhD candidate in sociology, all at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

"The privatization of education in its many different forms is now a basic component of education systems around the world. This book is a systematic account of these forms, their effects, and the politics of privatization—global and national. Rich in examples, careful in its analysis, important in its conclusions and recommendations for further work, this book is a vital, rigorous, up-to-date resource for education policy researchers."
—Stephen J. Ball, distinguished service professor of sociology of education; editor, Journal of Education Policy, Humanities and Social Science Institute of Education, University College London

"In this useful volume, some of the leading and emerging scholars of their generation offer important insights for our collective understanding of the political economy of market-oriented education reform. The authors brilliantly illuminate both the “why” and the “how” of this global trend toward market models for education, drawing on diverse cases from developing and rich countries to identify the multiple pathways by which privatization advances. Few issues are as significant but under-appreciated as is education privatization across the globe; few treatments of this issue offer both the breadth and nuanced understanding that this book does."
—Christopher Lubienski, professor of education policy, Indiana University

2016 CIES Globalization and Education SIG Book Award