Privatization
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ISSN 2368-7568 Year 8, No. 11, abril de 2018. Education Research Bulletin of the IDEA Network www.revistaintercambio.org New forms of privatization Photo: Source aft.org Source Photo: and education commodifcation México | Ecuador | Honduras | Argentina | Canadá | Perú | Brasil | Estados Unidos Edgar Isch López • Larry Kuehn • Miguel Duhalde • Myriam Feldfeber • Guadalupe Ibeth Luquin • Diego Morales Alarcón • Hamer Villena • • Ronnie Huete Salgado • Content: Presentation Editorial Committe María Trejos (Costa Rica), Privatization: the threat to the right to education... [email protected] Edgar Isch López María de la Luz Arriaga (México), [email protected] Edgar Isch López (Ecuador), [email protected] Education Technology as a Trojan Horse for Larry Kuehn (Canadá), Privatization… [email protected] Larry Kuehn Miguel Duhalde (Argentina), [email protected] Editorial Director: Steve Stewart Privatizing Trends both“in” and “of” Education in [email protected] Argentina… Editor: María de Jesús Ramos Miguel Duhalde and Myriam Feldfeber [email protected] Design and training: Roxana Cañedo, Tomás Licea Privatization of education in the United States Translation: Ruth Leckie, Flor Montero, Wendy Méndez,Carmen Miranda. –making life safe for the billionaire class… Larry Kuehn To learn more about the IDEA network and to read previous issues of Intercambio, visit: www.revistaintercambio.org The School at the Center: the privatization of and: education… www.idea-network.ca Guadalupe Ibeth Luquin Facebook: Idea Network- Red SEPA Post-secondary education in Ecuador: Privatized and Elitist… Diego Morales Alarcón We thank Miguel Duhalde, Education secretary – CTERA, for in coordinating of this number. We wish to thank the: British Columbia Tea- The OxI and APP Initiatives: new forms of privatizing chers´Federation (BCTF) for their support in the and commodifying education in Peru… publication of this of “Intercambio”. Hamer Villena Intercambio is a publication of the Initiative for Democratic eduation in the Americas (IDEA), a The National University “penitentiary” in Honduras… hemispheric alliance of social and labour orga- Ronnie Huete Salgado nizations that work to defend and enhace public education. PRESENTATION New forms of privatization and commercialization in education Tere is a new wave of privatization hit- Te reader will fnd in this issue eight arti- ting the Americas, which is making public cles that ofer an exploration of the diferent education become alert of the new attacks. ways in which the privatizing tendencies are Te ofensive comes hand in hand with the taking place at diferent levels, be them at strengthening of neoliberal positions, as well elementary or higher education; as well as as with the return of right-wing governments on a regional scale. in several Latin American countries Te kick-of is an article by Edgar Isch Privatizing and commoditizing tenden- from Equator, which presents a regional per- cies once again proliferate in the feld of spective of privatizing trends. It highlights education, becoming stronger at a conti- how it has been one of the most evil com- nental and world-wide level. Tat is the ponents of the neoliberal “reform”; which reason why IDEA Network/Red SEPA seeks is nothing but a destructive counter-reform to contribute with a regional refection on against social progress. Te opening of edu- their processes and trends in the Americas; cation to the private sector has had a special as well as of their diferent expressions in strategic importance, since it represents a various nations. large market and a place for the large capitals With multi-faceted and combined strate- to exert ideological control. gies, the capital is increasingly deploying its Larry Kuehn from Canada describes the policies to take over the educational systems. strategic role technology plays in advancing It is not only a business for them, but a way privatization, by changing school curricula in which progressively imposing the logic and eroding labor conditions for teachers. of the private property of knowledge and “Te State has played the historical primary its commoditization. role of defning the contents of education. But now, it is the corporations involved in program “Te school at the center.” It is a the felds of education and technology who new model that strengthens privatization are exerting pressure on the State to step and opens the door to private investment; aside, so that the corporate interests rule aside from aiding the transference of public over the classrooms, a frequent yet invisible moneys to the fnancial capital. change in power.” As far as Equator is concerned, Diego With the same regional view, we acknowl- Morales shows the erosion of the higher edge that in the Argentinian case, presented education system facing restrictions to by Myriam Feldefeber y Miguel Duhalde, free admission, the control of university there has been important progress made autonomy, a co-government and a state-in- in the expansion of rights that oppose pri- duced budgetary reduction. Thus, a social vatization of education and the growth of right is now offered to benefit private private school enrollment. Te situation companies, be them public or private, who had been complicated due to a conservative are thrilled to see the vertiginous growth restoration in the region. of school enrolment, the corresponding Larry Kuehn also shares the US experi- economic percentage and in some cases, ence, where the most extreme examples of the increase of State allocations to the privatization are seen in charter schools. private sector. “Te Trump regimen is attempting to rep- Hamer Villena analyzes one of the core licate them all throughout the US. Te fail- concepts to understand the participation of ure of New Orleans children will double private companies in the public sector that if Trump and the Secretary of Education, is shaking the region: PPP (Private-Public Betsy Devos, succeed. In a nutshell, charter Partnerships) and their impact in the pri- schools are private schools, fnanced with vatization of education in Peru. public funds, but without the accountability To conclude, we include an article of of public ofcials.” the Honduras scenario with the confict Guadalupe Luquin shares the Mexican at the National Autonomous University experience, with the continuous interven- of Honduras, which places center stage tion of entrepreneurs to guarantee the com- of the resistance the defense of the public pliance of the Educational Reform with the university. 2 Privatization: the threat to the right to education Edgar Isch L.* Public education is under attack. Te names given to of self-improvement through “competition” and, this war against the guarantee to the right to education lastly, of achieving an education that solves social are varied, even though it is contained in the descrip- problems. But they have not been able to show tion of the Global Education Reform (the acronym that privatization improves educational quality, in English is GERM, because of its malignant and whatever the concept it has of itself (Waslander disease-ridden character) (Gawain, 2015). Te right to et al., 2010). Meanwhile, on the contrary, it can education, in itself, is threatened in various ways. As be proven that the superiority of private education are characteristics that speak to the reach of this right, isn’t more than a myth constructed by very clear such as accessible, free, secular, state responsibility, interests (CLADE, 2012). social beneft, among others. Latin America, of course, is the stage for this war. Privatization is one of the most perverse com- Teachers, students and parents in our countries have ponents of the neoliberal “reform”. It is, in reality, recently struggled to defend public education and to a counter-reform destructive of multiple social demand funding and liberation in the face of inter- gains, all of which have been the result of years national reforms and mechanisms of subjugation of and decades of struggles by people to win their education systems like the PISA exams. rights. The term reform is all the more deceiving, Tere are few studies of a regional character on more perverse, because it’s sold as a desirable the topic, despite the growing concern that is being product under offers of “quality”, of “meritocra- generated in each country. One of them, carried out cy” (an elegant manner to call social Darwinism), in 2012 by the Campaign—CLADE—, draws on the record of the “Seminar on Privatization of Education * Professor of the Central University of Ecuador, research- in Latin America.” Te multiple faces that this process er of environmental, social, and education topics. Member could reach are highlighted, alerting that: of team of RED SEPA/IDEA Network researchers. Beyond the explicit mechanism of privatization, 3 whether it be through the direct intervention of private reforms of education and the emergence of a middle actors in the provision of education, through the pro- class with greater purchasing power, elements that vision of private goods and services within the public private education aims for. system, or the acceptance of private corporate criteria Privatization “by default”. Countries like the Domi- in the parameters of public policy, what is at stake in nican Republic, Peru or Jamaica, where there is limited these tendencies is the possibility of exercising education state capacity to respond. On our part, we dared to within a democracy (page 16). highlight that this lack of capacity is also the result of Let’s not forget that many of these processes have intentional decisions in this direction. Neoliberalism been carried out due to illegitimate external debts leads to a so-called “weakening” of the state in the social taken on by governments without consulting with their sector precisely to demonstrate its thesis of the state’s people (Isch, 2008). “inefciency” and the necessity of private enterprise. Education International (EI), a global federation of Te defunding mechanism and the precariousness of teachers’ unions, presented two studies on the topic, the public system are ofen used as factors that lead carried out by researchers from the Autonomous Uni- to disaster conditions.