Privatization of Schools: An International View

“Math wars”, attacks on teacher unions, old-fashioned commercialism, standardized assessment, and surveillance: debates over education have always been heated. But these days, the very concept of public education, the students who are served by it and those employed in this sector are in many ways either being neglected or are under sustained attack by political and corporate elites. And as a result, privatization is no longer “creeping”–it is stampeding through entire school jurisdictions. And while the damage is all-encompassing and ultimately we are all made worse off by this onslaught,  it is the most vulnerable among us who are being hurt the most.

This Summer 2014 issue of Our Schools / Our Selves encourages readers to connect the dots between the various manifestations of privatization, and how, under the guise of neoliberalism (sometimes referred to “austerity”) it is being sold to schools and society; it also includes a section, available for download, that examines the privatization of education on an international scale.

Attachments

[PREVIEW] Summer 2014: Cover
[PREVIEW] Summer 2014: Table of Contents
[PREVIEW] Summer 2014: Editorial
[PREVIEW] Summer 2014: Privatization of Schools

About the authors

Salim Vally

Carol Anne Spreen

Erika Shaker

Erika (she/her) became Director of the National Office in 2020, but began her career at the CCPA in 1997 as director of the Education Project. Originally established to monitor corporate intrusion in public education, the project broadened its focus to include standardized testing, social justice and anti-racism education in schools, educational equity, school finance, child care and early childhood education, tuition and user fees, technology, surveillance and privacy, the arts, and community-based education. In 2000 she also became editor of Our Schools/Our Selves, the popular education journal founded in 1988. It provides commentary and analysis on a wide variety of education-related topics. Erika has a BA in History from McGill University and an MA in English (critical literary analysis) from the University of Guelph. Prior to coming to the CCPA, she worked in Washington DC researching the corporatization of childhood, and was one of the founders of UNPLUG (which became the now-defunct Center for Commercial-Free Public Education). She spends far too much time on social media.