Privatizing Education: Can the Marketplace Deliver Choice, Efficiency, Equity, and Social Cohesion?

• Author: Levin, Henry M.
• Position: Book Reviews

Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2001 (372 pp)

Reviewed by Patrice Sutton Burger, manager, GFOA Research and Consulting Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Because of the importance of education in modern society, the quality of educational services will always be of interest and concern. However, there is a great disparity of opinions when it comes to the methods of delivering such services. On one end of the spectrum, there are those who believe that parents should be the decision makers in educational issues, not the government. They feel that the only answer to today's problems in education is to encourage private-sector involvement and to ensure flexibility to families through choice and competition. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who contend that universal public education is necessary in a democracy and that privatization leads to racial, economic, and social segregation.

Although there are avid supporters on both sides of the debate on the privatization of education, there is little reliable research to support either view. The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education (NCSPE) was established to fill this gap. Privatizing Education is the result of the NCSPE's first conference in April 1999 and sets the agenda for its research. Although the book cites many completed educational privatization studies to review what is already known about the subject, its main purpose is to identify future research needs as more and more governments consider pledging funds and changing state legislation for privatization of schools.

Privatizing Education will be a useful tool for those scholars and students interested in researching privatization. On most topics, it provides an overview of the research that already has been done, points out the shortcomings of or unanswered questions from that research, and outlines a number of pertinent questions that should frame future research. Government officials or others looking for definitive answers or a substantiated position on the issue will need to use a different resource, as the question on the front of the book is not actually answered within its covers.

After an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 explains the role that the media plays in the privatization debate. Despite the importance and widespread impact of this topic, there are few "specialist" reporters in this field. Because a neutral, impartial source of information has been lacking to this point, reporters and other...