Conclusion
Since the 1980s, transnational actors have disseminated ideas of education privatization throughout Latin America. Although by similar means, these policy ideas arrived at different historical moments at Chile and Argentina. Privatization ideas made its way in Chile carried by the influential Chicago boys, during the critical juncture of the authoritarian regime. The market-based reform served the interests of the military regime, and faced very little resistance given the repression and dismantling of the teacher union, and the penetration of the economic logic in the Ministry of Education. Timing, carriers and weak opposition allowed a complete replacement of the domestic education policy. Later in democracy, state-oriented education bureaucrats were not able to reverse the policy change. Although they tried to build on the inherited model and use the state as a way to correct the failures of the education market, the inconsistency between their goals and their means ended up reproducing and strengthening the privatized model.
By contrast in Argentina, the economic perspective arrived timidly and late when the country was making its transition to democracy. The resistance of the teacher union and provincial governments towards fiscal decentralization, and the reluctance of the ministry of education to market-based reforms, refrained the government from proposing explicit privatization instruments such as vouchers. Instead, the government gradually changed
This means that the good schools can only take in a few students, the proverbial tip of the ice berg. The rest of the students are relegated to schools in which their parents have no faith at all. This is tantamount to dooming these students to failure and being completely unable to do anything about it. The decline in the level of education in the public school system has prompted a lot of parents to opt for private schooling for their children. The problem with this is, of course, finances. Another problem facing the schooling system is the lack of streamlining of services. A comparison is drawn between the schools in the poor neighborhoods and their equivalents in the rich neighborhoods. The difference is astronomical. There is absolutely no coherency between the levels of services being provided in these institutions. Thus, the education system appears to be skewed. This is a worst case scenario situation for a system that is supposed to provide children with equal opportunities at a better life in the
The Ultimate goal of Education system is one of the most frequently asked questions from all stakeholders and their answer mainly depends on their different prospective. David Labree (1997) in his article “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle Over Educational Goal” shows how the three main purposes, which interact and interfere sometimes, have shaped the American education goals, throughout out its practices and policies, democratic equality, social efficiency and Social mobility. On the same track, Nickols and Cuenca (2014) found in their work “Two Roadmaps, One Destination: The Economic Progress Paradigm in Teacher Education Accountability in Georgia and Missouri” That teacher preparation programs influence by what they called “the economic progress paradigm” (p. 457), which is the social efficiency that Labree (1997) had pointed out. Considering the fact that, which of the three schooling purposes is the most important, I believe the social mobility to be given number one priority, and to be considered among the other two that can benefit, both individuals and public.
Over the last 25 years many policies have been introduced in education. Some critic’s say that an education market has been created but others disagree and say that the policies have helped create equality of opportunity.
Public Education reform has emotional, political, and economic ties due to the impact America endures from the public school system. New American Academy writer Yehudi Meshchaninov writes,
American reform movements have generally been started as a rebellion against the control of big businesses and corrupt government. The poor conditions of schools and the entire education system at the turn of the twentieth century were a major cause for reform. That reform movement has influenced the entire education system and has made it better and more suitable for students.(Buenker, 2007)
The Education Reform Act of 1988 welcomed the marketization of education. This helped to improve class equality as the standards of education were raised by introducing competition between schools. Therefore if a school was failing, they would bring in head teachers from the business world in order to manage the finances of the school and help invest money into resources. This would give the working class
In this video about “What’s Wrong with Our Schools”, Milton demands a question which is still important even today than it was in 1980. why the public-school system has changed so much since lots of parents are starting to protest about the poor quality of education that their children are receiving and the public hating the increased taxes that help the public schools. Milton made a conclusion by saying that it is the government who control the most harms the welfare of students and parents alike.
Since 1983 public education has been an issue in America. The system has been constantly changing every year with reforms. This constant change has been driven by the American people’s perception that education has declined and something should be done about it. First there was an increased emphasis on basic skills, making school years longer and more graduation requirements. Second, many began focusing on increasing teachers professionalism. Third, they began restructuring many things such as how the schools were organized and how the school day was structured etc. Now today the most of the American people believe that not enough money is given to public schooling. They associate academic improvement with the money the school is funded.
Amid chaotic and drastic changes within Latin America, there is one country whose economy’s improvement has outshone the rest. According to a recent interview by CNN to the current vice president at Council of the Americas, it was possible to know that “Peru is currently Latin America’s fastest growing country”. Additionally, drastic reforms and innovative policies have fostered an environment that favours economic development. Although there is a lot left to do regarding public investment, the country has experienced drastic growth and several changes during the past years. Currently, the new president and the newest reforms have influenced the government and now the country is focusing on exporting processed goods instead of raw materials.
The earliest inhabitants of Brazil were the Indians. However, the country’s recorded history begins with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500. The Portuguese sailor Pedro Alvares Cabral visited the continent we call South America, eight years after Columbus arrived in America. Portuguese settlers followed, calling the new colony Brazil, after the brazilwood tree that they extracted red dye from. The Portuguese did not bring prosperity and progress to the Indians. Instead, they unintentionally infected and killed thousands of Indians with diseases such as measles and smallpox.
Abstract: Privatization is arguably one of the most significant changes in Latin American education since 1980s. However, Latin American countries have undertaken quite different trajectories to liberalize their education. Yet we lack explanations accounting for this concurrent convergence in the privatization of education and the striking variation of liberalization instruments. This paper argues that the explanation lies on understanding the politics of the education reforms, and particularly the interaction between foreign ideas and domestic policymaking. Organizational institutionalism regards this interaction as a translation of global New Public Management ideas by domestic policy-makers. Building on organizational institutionalism argument, this paper contends that translation of international ideas about privatization of education is shaped by domestic political coalitions. Translation is also embedded in a historical process within which early policy decisions have diverse feedback effects on coalitions and subsequent policy choices. To illustrate this argument, the paper identifies the mechanisms by which privatization was embraced in Argentina, Chile, and
According to James Painter in his BBC News article “Latin America faces year of change”, Latin America suffers from social violence, kidnapping, drug trafficking, child pornography, lack of women’s rights, and little accountability over the region’s law makers and authorities which can lead to government corruption (para. 12). Government corruption can be defined as political power used by government leaders for private gain and to maintain their power as a government official. Most of the times these corrupt politicians in Latin America say they are accomplishing apprehension of criminals to the best of their abilities when, in reality, they commit the same multitude of crimes. Politicians are able to maintain their power as a result of
Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Youness Elhamidi, Department of Public Administration, American Public University System, 111 W. Congress Street, Charles Town, WV 25414. E-mail: yelhamidi@apus.edu.
Bowles and Gintis felt it was important to write this article, because they believe that the politics of education are better understood in terms of the need for social control in an unequal and rapidly changing economic order. This point is illustrated on page 396 when the authors say, “The unequal
La tierra mas hermosa. The most beautiful land. Latin America and the Caribbean maintain the humble beauty of many indigenous regions. The rugged mountains of Bolivia are scattered across graded lands. The Quechua people can be seen wearing richly decorated ponchos as they plant seeds for forming. Weathered volcanic lavas are stretched over the lands of Guatemala, and the heavily wooded forest trees can also be seen in the eastern slopes of the Andes. The azure blue oceans of Havana sparkle as the golden sun illuminates the sky. These humble lands have always been here; streams of people have flowed through these lands for centuries. It is only the globalización that is relatively new, and along with that comes the life one lives in these lands--pobreza y viviendo en el infierno [poverty and living in hell]. The impact of globalization in Latin America has caused a ripple in the lives of many individuals living in Latin America and the Caribbean. Although globalization is not a new concept, the process of globalization has drastically expanded and involved into social, political, and economic changes that weakens the sovereignty and power that helps create policies and reform government institutions.