Education Management Organisations and the Privatisation of Public Education: A cross-national comparison of the USA and Britain

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Abstract
Education Management Organisations (EMOs), for-profit and non-profit management companies engaged in take-over and operation of public education, are becoming big business in the USA and the UK. It is estimated that in the US, EMOs were projected to generate up to $123 billion dollars in revenue in 2000. In the smaller UK system it is estimated that about 5 billion of services in public education could be contracted out to private organisations per annum. This paper examines the policy frameworks that have enabled EMOs to take-over and progressively contribute to the privatisation of public education in two national settings, the USA and England and Wales. The British scene is distinctive because government policies that have sought to expand the role of the private sector, via public-private partnerships, in the provision of public sector services and its strong accountability system, have provided opportunities for EMOs to be engaged in, or take-over, schools and educational administrative services formerly provided by LEAs. In the US, in the mid-1990s, EMOs were invited to take over school districts and specific schools. However, this practice has been succeeded by a new focus on taking over the management of charter schools. A large capital market that is able to finance enterprises involved in educational services supports the development of EMOs in the US. Our research findings, however, point to halting progress by EMOs in public education in the US. There have been well-publicised failures to deliver the promised better education at a lower cost and also well-documented failure to raise student performance levels in school and school districts. The paper concludes with reflections on the extent to which EMOs have taken forward privatisation and its implications for the governance of education.

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