I recently posted about the article and editorial in The Economist praising charter schools. The Economist is a booster of free-market capitalism so it is no surprise that it would admire this venture in privatization. What interested me about the articles was that the magazine quite bluntly described these privately-managed schools as privatization. Charter school advocates here try to hide that distinction. They go to lengths to call themselves “public charter schools” and claim to be “public schools” because they get public money. The Economist sees them plainly as privatization with public funds, outsourcing public schools to private management.
One reader is worried about how this trend towards privatization will affect developing countries:
| My main worry about the claim made by the Economist is that now this idea is going to the developing countries and influencing the governments policy to privatization of public education. Many international aid agencies are already talking about it. What I fear is with this movement of privatization, children from poorer households or poor community will be even poorer with no education at all! We all think market is great where we can buy and bargain and negotiate. But market and public welfare really do not go hand in hand or does it? |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am currently in the Dominican Republic and have friends who are teachers. When I tell them the way teachers are targeted and are run out of the system, they claim their union would stick up for individuals, unlike the UFT. The town I spend my time in is San Francisco de Macoris and is know for is strikes and protest. I doubt whether they could get away with privatization here.
There are a lot of places where people have to pay for their education; they are still fighting for a public school system.
Come to India and see what’s happening. The governments have abdicated their responsibility of educating the masses, and privatization of education is the current rhetoric. Nobody has a clue as to how public education should be organized, leaving the door wide open for fly-by-night operators. Thr future is bleak, but we Indians have elevated living in denial to a fine art.
“We all think market is great where we can buy and bargain and negotiate. But market and public welfare really do not go hand in hand or does it?”
That depends on what the service is. The legislators have conflated the effect of increased competition on price in an elastic and inelastic demand market. Essentially if a service is necessary, such as education, then the demand for the service stays at the same level no matter the price or quality of service. For this reason, it is easy to see why corporations are looking to privatize education. They will have an almost guaranteed revenue from taxes while avoiding regulations on public schools and decreasing their costs via online courses, teachers without proper certifications, and so on.