Privatization

“Privatization includes all forms of privately funded public education, including individual and corporate donations, user fees, advertising-for-service, etc. It also refers to the shifting mindset that view education as an individual, private good or responsibility, rather than a social, public one.”

Pearson’s plans for personalizing through technology

Multi-national corporation, Pearson, has plans to “revolutionize how education is delivered to students around the world.”. Researcher Donald Gutstein has looked at their plans and how they relate to British Columbia. More...  

A related article by Gutstein, Pearson’s plan to control education, is published in the Teacher newsmagazine (Sep 2012)

Teacher newsmagazine articles

• Privatization and privilege come at a price. Teacher newsmagazine (Mar 2013)
• Corporate influence in the BC Ed Plan. Teacher newsmagazine (Nov/Dec 2012)
• Privatizing of public education: Only in America or coming to a school near you? Teacher newsmagazine (Sep 2011)

Background information and conferences

• Privatization backgrounder 
• Issues 
• Bibliography 
• Conferences 
• BCTF report on privatization and commercialization of education (2007)
• BCTF report on privatization and commercialization of education (2006)

Taking action on privatization

Opposing privatization is not a one shot activity, by Lynette Harper, Task Force on Privatization (Mar 2005)

Links

• Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives publishes research on privatization issues. Use their search feature to find relevant publications.
• CUPE maintains a comprehensive web page on privatization, including public-private partnerships.