This article describes how the Chicago schools system has been bedeviled by the social conditions faced by the city's inhabitants, and now by attempts to use privatization and school closures as the "solution" to those problems. The article describes how teachers in the Chicago Teachers' Union combined with community members to challenge…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced the No Child Left Behind Act with great fanfare and enthusiasm. Granting more power to states and curbing what was seen as federal overreach was well received. However, the new legislation maintains a predominately test-based accountability system with a federal mandate for interventions in well over…

Outsourcing has evolved into a strategic imperative at a growing number of community colleges, especially as administrators rein in spending and streamline operations in the face of shrinking budgets. Across the country, more colleges are outsourcing a range of functions, including information technology (IT), course instruction, food service,…

Much has been written about globalization and the challenge of preparing young people for the new world of work and life in times of complexity and continuous change. However, few works have examined how globalization has and will continue to shape education in the East. This volume discusses education within the context of globalization and…

California's public higher education system has for a long time been lauded as one of the finest in the world. But for the last several decades, budget cuts and privatization have resulted in the steady erosion of this system, as well as K-12 education in the state and other public sector services. It was told that privatization and choice--in the…

The neoliberal reform arrived at the market of higher education with the intention of introducing private dynamics into public organizations. Through this strategy, the objective was to improve efficiency by promoting intra- and intersectoral competition. The introduction of performance funding shifted the concept of accountability for…

Since 1987, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke has made education his top priority. He strongly supports serious, autonomous schools, insists on accountability, and has impeccable education credentials. Recognizing a crisis in public education, Schmoke moved to save the system from further deterioration and opened it to responsible reform via…

The long-sustained effort of conservatives and their think tanks and media outlets to win support for school choice, market forces, and privatization schemes in education is paying off. But it is encountering steady resistance from the public education establishment and its supporting teachers' unions. Actions, reactions, strategies, and the…

A Minneapolis superintendent presents diary excerpts of his three-year experience and dispels myths about improving education. He argues the futility of believing that more, less, or private is better; that educators are nincompoops; or that money talks. Transforming education requires core goals, customer support, consequences (accountability),…

Introduces a series of articles about Canadian educational policy issues, comparing British and Canadian policymaking milieus during the 1980s. All the papers address wide-ranging attempts to reconstruct notions of commonness alongside concessions to, and celebrations of, linguistic and cultural plurality in an uncertain, postliberal world. This…

Chester Upland School District, which finished last out of 501 systems in Pennsylvania, is a guinea pig for the private management of public education. Managing 9 of Chester's 10 schools, Edison Schools and its subsidiary Edison/Learn Now is banking on turning around the district with its longer class day, structured curriculum teacher training,…

The Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae) and the Clinton Administration are preparing legislation to transform the federally sponsored corporation into a private business but must negotiate complex political and financial issues. Destabilization of the private student-loan industry and conflict over direct-lending policies are central…

Problems in the financing of higher education in India, particularly in the large proportion of costs borne by the government, are examined. Several policy proposals to remedy the problems, including privatization, are critically reviewed. It is concluded that there is a need for experimentation with a number of alternatives. (MSE)

Saint Mary's College of Maryland, previously a public college, has become a unique public-private hybrid in response to changes in state support commitments. Although this model could not be applied to most institutions, the experience suggests that college and universities must find new means of financing and relating to the state. (MSE)

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…