Privatization

Privatization, generally, is the withdrawal or shifting of the government's assets, functions, activities, and possibly entire institutions to the private sector. In education, privatization occurs when local, state, and national policies are enacted that support free market entry into the public domain of schooling. Four types of educational policies can result in privatization: (1) the cessation or disengagement of the government from responsibilities in providing educational goods and services, (2) the explicit transfers of public school assets to private ownership, (3) the financing of private educational services through contracting-out or vouchers, and (4) the deregulation of entry into activities, previously restricted to public providers, to private entities. Although the various forms of private reforms fall under the heading of privatization, there is no single privatization plan throughout the United States as a result of the history of local and state control in public schooling.

Milton Friedman, a free market economist of the Chicago School, first proposed privatization for public schools in 1962 via government-funded vouchers for parents to choose and purchase the services of private schools for their children. By 1998, provoucher corporations and foundations had committed substantial funds to establish voucher programs in 41 cities. In 2003, Congress passed the District of Columbia School Choice Incentive Act, which provides vouchers for low-income families to send their children to private schools of choice, including religious schools. Research on the effectiveness of private school choice has focused on students' scores on standardized tests and has been hotly contested.

Privatization of public school services increased through the 1990s and is included in the policy provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), such as policies and funding for charter schools and for the contracting of outside providers for the supplemental educational services.

Charter schools, as defined by the NCLB, are essentially public schools that are exempt from significant state or local regulations. They are designed to foster innovative teaching, curriculum and school organization, are funded publicly, cannot be affiliated with a religious institution, and cannot discriminate on the basis of age, race, gender, religion, ethnic origin, or disability. They vary from state to state, can contract with private corporations to provide services within the school for instruction and management, and can do private fund-raising. They also are granted waivers from their respective states in regard to state educational requirements; for example, in Pennsylvania, charter school legislation does not allow for teacher tenure and requires that only 75% of the employed teachers be certified teachers. As with the research on private school choice, results regarding student academic achievement for charter schools are mixed and vary greatly because of the wide variety of different forms of charter schools.

The contracting with a private corporation or a not-for-profit entity to provide supplemental services, such as managing public schools; custodial, transportation, or food services; and curriculum and assessment resources is also increasing. For example, the Success for All Foundation, a not-for-profit entity, provides scripted curricula and an assessment, 4Sight, that is aligned with a state's assessment system as required by NCLB. For-profit corporations such as Huntington Learning Center and Sylvan Learning Center provide after-school tutoring paid by federal NCLB monies. Public school districts and charter schools can also contract with for-profit and nonprofit educational management organizations to operate and manage [Page 685]the whole school. Edison Schools is the most well-known and largest of these companies; others include National Heritage Academies, Mosaica, and White Hat Management.

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