Director: Daniel C. Levy

Collaboration with the NCSPE, Teachers College, Columbia University

PROPHE has started a collaboration with the NCSPE (National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education), Teachers College, Columbia University, a leading center on privatization in education, especially at the primary-secondary level. The NCSPE provides analysis and information on education privatization in both U.S. and international arenas through its research, conferences, and publications.

The PROPHE-NCSPE Collaboration's first undertaking is that each provides on its own website a few research publications of the other center. The shared goal is dissemination of information, analysis, and scholarly research on privatization in education, including for public policy implications. PROPHE working papers no. 1, 3, and 5 will be posted initially on the NCSPE website. Likewise, PROPHE now posts the following NCSPE publications (The abstracts and full PDF files are provided by the NCSPE).

Gulosino, Charisse. 2003. "Evaluating Private Higher Education in the Philippines: The Case for Choice, Equity and Efficiency," Occasional Paper No. 68.

Private higher education has long dominated higher education systems in the Philippines, considered as one of the highest rates of privatization in the world. The focus of this paper is to provide a comprehensive picture of the nature and extent of private higher education in the Philippines. Elements of commonality as well as differences are highlighted, along with the challenges faced by private institutions of higher education. From this evidence, it is essential to consider the role of private higher education and show how, why and where the private education sector is expanding in scope and number. In this paper, the task of exploring private higher education from the Philippine experience breaks down in several parts: sourcing of funds, range of tuition and courses of study, per student costs, student destinations in terms of employability, and other key economic features of non-profit /for-profit institutions vis-à-vis public institutions. The latter part of the paper analyses several emerging issues in higher education as the country meets the challenge for global competitiveness. Pertinent to this paper's analysis is Levin's comprehensive criteria on evaluating privatization, namely: choice, competition, equity and efficiency.

Click here for the full article as a PDF

Xu, Zeyu. 2002. "An Overview of Private Education Development in Modern China," Occasional Paper No. 38.

<Now published in (2002) Education Policy Analysis Archives , 10(47).Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n47/ >

It is not surprising that private education is gaining importance in China, given the overall context of huge national efforts toward building up a "socialist market economy". However, the fast growth rate in both the quantities and the qualities of profitable private schools in a socialist society has exceeded expectations. This paper looks into the modern history of private education in China and finds that such a huge resurgence of private education is rooted in the heritage of private education in Chinese society. Private schools were the precursor of modern Chinese education and they played an important role in the country for a long period before 1949. When the government policy became more flexible and household income increased substantially, such a heritage was revived and became a stimulating factor for the private education sector.

Click here for the full article as a PDF

Morduchowicz, Alejandro. 2002. "Private Education: Funding and (De) regulation in Argentina," Occasional Paper No. 36.

This paper on the education system in Argentina has two aims: (a) to provide a brief summary of the most outstanding milestones of educational privatization; and (b) to review some of the most significant features of the demand and supply of private education. First, we give a quantitative description of the private education sector and the relevant policies over the previous last fifty years. Second, we analyze the two instruments that relate the State and private schools at a local level: public funding of private establishments, and the functional regulations. Finally, we evaluate the sector using four criteria of freedom of choice, efficiency, equity, and social cohesion.

Click here for the full article as a PDF

Levin, Henry M. 2001. "The Public-Private Nexus in Education," Occasional Paper No. 1.

<Now published in (1999) The American Behavioral Scientist, 43(1), 124-137>

Although explicit public-private partnerships are rare in education, there is a close connection between the public and private goals of education. Education inherently serves both public and private interests. It addresses public interests by preparing the young to assume adult roles that promote civic responsibility, embrace a common set of economic and political values, and share a common language. Education serves private interests in promoting individual development, understanding, and productivity that contribute to adult productivity and well-being. Unfortunately, educational policy may find itself in conflict while simultaneously serving both public and private mandates. This article reviews that challenge and presents a variety of ways on which public and private sectors collaborate educationally. It focuses most fully on the issues that arise from recent proposals for educational vouchers in which public resources would be used to promote and fund schools in the private marketplace.

Click here for the full article as a PDF

Followings are some abstracts of NCSPE research publications. Click on the title's names for more information.

Levin, Jesses. 2004. "Differences in Educational Production Between Dutch Public and Religious Schools," Occasional Paper No. 93.

A common finding in the economic literature on schooling effectiveness is the phenomenon of better performance by religious, and more precisely, Catholic schools in terms of scholastic achievement, educational attainment and measurable labor market outcomes (i.e. subsequent employment status and wages). While the majority of this research in the economic sciences stems from the US, fueling the debate over public financing of private education in this country, comparatively little research directly addressing the phenomenon has been performed in the Netherlands despite evidence of a significant achievement premium to Dutch Catholic schools. This study explores the phenomenon of superior achievement of Catholic over other (public and Protestant) primary schools in the Netherlands .

Although this is a common finding across other countries, the case of the Netherlands differs in that it is unlikely the premium to Catholic versus public and Protestant education has to do with systematic differences in funding or administrative selection of better/worse students across these educational sectors. However, self-selection of schools by parents may be a significant source of selectivity bias. Therefore, extra attention is taken in controlling for parental self-selection for students into the three main school sectors (Catholic, public, and Protestant) when estimating the causal effect of each on scholastic achievement through the use of an IV technique. We also control for a wide variety of (potentially achievement enhancing) educational practices that may be more pervasive and/or efficient in the Catholic sector to attempt to explain the persistent achievement advantage of Catholic schools in Holland .

Cappellari, Lorenzo. 2004. "High school types, academic performance and early labor market outcomes," Occasional Paper No. 90.

Using micro data on the 1995 cohort of Italian high school graduates, this paper studies the relationship between the type of high school attended (general versus technical; private versus public) and indicators of subsequent performance. Simultaneity issues that potentially bias this type of exercise are tackled by instrumental variables. Results indicate that the type of high school attended greatly depends upon the family of origin and prior school performance. General high schools are found to increase the probability of transition to university and to improve performance once at university. On the other hand, private high schools appear to be associated with lower academic performance. Technical schools improve the quality of the school-to-work transitions, both in terms of participation and employment probabilities.

Bailey, Thomas; Jacobs, James; and Jenkins, Davis. 2004, "Outsourcing of Instruction at Community Colleges," Occasional Paper No. 89.

The outsourcing of instruction at community colleges to independent firms is a growing practice, though currently limited to non-credit courses. While the contracting out of other services (e.g. food) is longstanding, and has been accepted as increasing efficiency, the outsourcing of instruction is more controversial. Advocates suggest the outsourcing of instruction can lower costs, increase efficiency and quality, improve flexibility, and ease financial constraints. Detractors are concerned about the loss of faculty cohesion and control. Further, they fear that the pursuit of profits by outside providers could lead to shortcuts that undermine learning. Ultimately, survey responses detail a debate over outsourcing that is symptomatic of the growing tension between meeting the broad public goals of higher education and promoting the efficiency objectives of profit-driven firms that offer instructional services.

This report uses interviews with college administrators and representatives of contractors to discover a wide variety of contracting out models, such as full-service contractors, specialized trainers, and on-line educators. The main reasons for outsourcing instruction are: the need for specialized or up-to-date knowledge, the response to rapid growth in particular fields of study, the desire for a wider set of delivery modes, the availability of high quality curricula at low-cost, the greater flexibility of contractors to schedule classes, and the promise of a standardized curriculum and specially trained or certified instructors. Barriers to the outsourcing of instruction remain. Faculty opposition, state regulations, and the inability of private firms to maximize profits can deter cooperation between private firms and colleges. Given the difficulties faced by community colleges and the hesitance of some vendors, it seems unlikely that the subcontracting of instruction will be used extensively.

Patrinos, Harry. 2002. "Private Education Provision and Public Finance: The Netherlands as a Possible Model," Occasional Paper No. 59.

One of the key features of the Dutch education system is freedom of education. That is, the freedom to found schools, to organize the teaching in schools, and to determine the principles on which they are based. Almost 70 percent of schools in the Netherlands are administered and governed by private school boards, and public and private schools are government funded on an equal footing. This allows school choice. Most parents can choose among several schools and there are no catchment areas. Some schools have developed a unique profile. Government policy requires schools to disseminate information to the public. Yet, debate has focused on how market forces can make the system more efficient and equitable, and less regulated. The school choice system found in the Netherlands is made possible by the system of finance.

Fitz, John; and Beers, Bryan. 2001. "Education Management Organizations and the Privatization of Public Education: A Cross-National Comparison of the USA and the UK," Occasional Paper No. 22.

This paper compares the development since the 1980s of privatization of education services in the US and the UK. In both countries Education Management Organizations have become institutionalized to some degree, with policy borrowing between the two countries and a common ideological predisposition toward market solutions. Despite this history, privatization remains small-scale and not especially lucrative to those entering the market. In the UK, the emphasis has been on Compulsory Competitive Tendering and the Private Finance Initiative: public sector structures to aid privatization within a governmental system. The result is privatization at 'glacial speed', with few opportunities for EMOs. In the US, it is the creation of capital markets and the roll-out of charter schooling which have sustained privatization - the activities of companies such as Edison and TesseracT are considered. Capital market growth and charter schooling represent much more general alternatives to public provision.

Wertz, Richard D. 2001. "Issues and Concerns in the Privatization and Outsourcing of Campus Services in Higher Education," Occasional Paper No. 10.

This paper presents an analysis of the issues and concerns of the concept of the privatization and outsourcing of campus services. Traditionally, colleges and universities have operated their own campus services providing goods and services to the institutional community as needed. Some services such as food service and bookstores were turned over to private companies, early on, to operate for the institution. A recent phenomenon has been occurring wherein colleges and universities have been turning to private service providers to operate more and more of their campus services. Although financial incentives appear to be the main reason colleges and universities are moving toward the privatization of campus services, other reasons can also be identified.

This paper examines why this phenomenon is occurring and the reasons higher education is so keenly interested in this concept. The paper reviews pressures to privatize; the current status of privatization in higher education; how the decision to privatize is made and what is involved before making that decision; what services are being privatized more than others; the importance of the relationship between the service provider and the institution; and, more generally, the issues involved in the privatization process itself.

In addition the paper then discusses how colleges and universities actually go through the process of privatizing a service and how this process is implemented. The paper presents a discussion of the documents involved in "competitively bidding" the campus service and the process involved in making certain the service provider is the "right fit" for the institution. The contract between the service provider and the institution is discussed and how that contract can be written to protect the institution. Steps to be taken by the college or university in the monitoring of the performance of the service provider are presented to insure that the institution is protected. A discussion of the process of monitoring the contract itself is presented. The role of the campus administrator responsible for the supervision of campus services is explored and how that role is changing with the expansion of privatization in higher education. Different campus services require different approaches in the privatization process and these services are discussed. The paper then deals with the future of the privatization movement and the implications for colleges and universities as a result.

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