The instrumentation of public subsidies for private schools: Different regulatory models with concurrent equity implications

Abstract

The availability of public funding for private schools, in both primary and secondary education, has become a common feature in a number of OECD countries. The expansion of public subsidies for privately owned schools has consequences that go far beyond the involvement of private actors in the provision of education. These include deepening forms of regulatory governance in educational systems and the blurring of frontiers between public and private education. Public subsidies for privately owned schools have been adopted following diverse rationalities and in pursuit of different goals. In light of the diversity, this research examines the regulatory configurations of private subsidized education provision across OECD countries, from a policy instruments’ perspective. Based on a systematic review of the literature, the article identifies four models of regulation of private subsidized education, and analyses why and how these models have been problematized and have evolved accordingly. The paper pays particular attention to recent educational reforms adopted, in most cases, to tackle the equity challenges posed by publicly subsidized private provision. Finally, the paper elaborates on the implications that this form of provision has for public education and the achievement of equity goals, and reflects on the potential and limits of regulatory reforms when confronting these issues.

Publicwashing in Education: Definition, Motives, and Manifestations

“…Last, a descriptive take of stakeholder theory may regard publicwashing as a reaction to the demands of one or more central stakeholders (Frynas & Stephens, 2015). These types of motives are particularly relevant to the field of education, where organizational goals range from students’ achievements and wellbeing to democratic and economic social interests, encompassing various types of practices that may be presented as effective tools to achieve these goals and satisfy various stakeholders (Perry-Hazan & Birnhack, 2016; Zancajo et al, 2021).…”

“…Scholars do not regard privatization in education as a unified policy because it has many different manifestations. It has been suggested that at the heart of all these manifestations stand private actors who are active in state education in areas such as funding, planning, management, service provision, training, and more (Verger et al, 2016; Zancajo et al, 2021). Numerous studies explored the positive and negative externalities of the various manifestations of privatization in education and the reactions they elicit in the public, professional, and political arenas (Rizvi, 2016).…”

El profesorado en el punto de mira: estrategias de influencia de las empresas españolas en el sistema educativo

“…Las actividades desarrolladas en el marco de esta nueva filantropía educativa cumplen una doble función: mostrar el compromiso de las grandes corporaciones con el bien común, e influir en la definición misma de la educación. Los nuevos actores filantrópicos concentran sus operaciones en la movilización de conocimiento, creación de redes, compromisos con las bases y pilotajes o enseñanzas desde el ejemplo (Fontdevila et al, 2021), desarrollando estrategias de influencia sobre los estados de opinión política acerca de las escuelas y su profesorado.…”

La Inclusión como reforma a gran escala: Trayectorias de cambio en escuelas privadas subvencionadas en Chile 2015-2020

“…La experiencia comparada destaca que los efectos de los programas de elección escolar en el logro de los objetivos de los sistemas educativos están fuertemente relacionados al tipo de regulación específica que permiten que las escuelas privadas resulten susceptibles de percibir financiamiento público (Boeskens, 2016;Zancajo et al, 2021). Por lo tanto, los marcos regulatorios constituyen un factor central para inhibir aquellos efectos no deseados de la expansión de la provisión privada y la elección escolar.…”

“…Por lo tanto, los marcos regulatorios constituyen un factor central para inhibir aquellos efectos no deseados de la expansión de la provisión privada y la elección escolar. De este modo, las políticas regulatorias orientadas a las escuelas privadas en la educación escolar es un aspecto que recibe cada vez más atención, tanto entre investigadores como tomadores de decisiones (Boeskens, 2016;Zancajo, 2019;Zancajo et al, 2021).…”