During the second half of the twentieth century, the Argentine education system went through a clear process of privatisation expressed in the increasing enrolment and state funding of the private sector. Especially in the 1990s, when the country implemented neoliberal economic policies, the academic literature had found in neoliberalism (in ideology, public policy and the enactment of certain laws) an explanation for this process of privatisation. Since the 2000s, and after a severe economic crisis, successive governments have rejected the neoliberal policies and have established a set of regulations and public policies with the explicit purpose of changing the previous policy trend. This article shows that after one decade of this new policy opposed to neoliberalism, the evidence suggests that privatisation of education has not only not been reversed but even expanded in a significant manner, reaching striking rates of increase, both in private enrolment and in state funding. Finally, the evidence presented shows that neither neoliberal nor post-neoliberal policies seem to determine the privatisation of education for the Argentine case. The article concludes with some remarks so as to design an explanatory model to account for the dynamics of the education system.

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Recent studies have revealed an increase in the enrollment of students coming from vulnerable social sectors in private primary schools in the City of Buenos Aires. To date, the phenomenon of ‘private education for the poor’ has been principally studied in Asian and African countries, where the deficit of state educational supply has given rise to a multiplicity of private education undertakings of diverse nature. Using official statistical data, this article explores and describes the structure of private education supply in areas of low socioeconomic status in Buenos Aires and assesses the extent to which the category of low-fee private school (LFPS) contributes to understanding this phenomenon. Our analysis reveals a great heterogeneity in this sector of private education in Buenos Aires with regard to financing structures, monthly fees, and the legal forms in which schools operate. We also find the presence of a significant religious component. We suggest the possibility that private provision has helped to mitigate coverage imbalances at a 'micro-local' level in some of the studied areas. Our comparative approach evidences that the notion of LFPS provides a more normative than descriptive view, limiting the perception of a phenomenon that is actually much broader, multifaceted and dynamic.

This paper analyses the provision of education in Argentina in systemic terms. Using the concept of quasi-monopoly and the notions of exit, voice and loyalty, we study the logic of organization and distribution of students within the educational system. We support the idea that the provision of private and public education makes a coherent whole, where the State plays an active role. We then evaluate the implications of this configuration on the Argentine system in terms of: (a) freedom of choice; (b) productive efficiency; (c) equity; and (d) social cohesion following Levin's framework. We describe how the Argentine quasi-State monopoly system works as an important device of scarcity administration, increasing socioeconomic segregation through its tendency to push the middle and upper-middle classes into private schooling while granting public schooling for the lowest income sectors. Finally, this article lays the foundation for the use of the quasi-State monopoly notion for the study of other educational systems.

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