Session Information
23 SES 09 B, Privatisation and Public Education
Symposium
Contribution
The Chilean education system is strongly market-driven. Since the reform started in 1981, the share of the enrolment on subsidised private schools increased from 15% in 1981 to 56% in 2014. In contrast, public schools saw their participation reduced from 78% to 37% in the same period. Three main measures implemented as part of this reform have grabbed the attention of researchers. First, the authorization for subsidised private schools (and eventually public schools) to charge fees to families. Second, the promotion of the establishment of for-profit schools. Third, the faculty of the schools to select their students without restrictions or guidance from the national authorities. In 2015, a new set of regulations prohibiting student selection, eliminating family fees and forbidding profit in subsidised private schools have been approved (but still have not been implemented). This recent reform has been understood as a major change in the Chilean educational arena and might be interpreted as the most important attempt to regulate the operation on this educational quasi-market, forming a new scenario for the privatisation process. Most research regarding privatisation in Chile has been concerned about its impact at system level focusing on school segregation or the differences on student attainment measures between private and public schools. However, the analysis of the administrative and educational characteristics and dynamics of the subsidised private sector have been overlooked. This paper offers a detailed picture of private providers to illustrate the strong dynamics development of the educational market and the answers to policies in housing, public funding, and accountability, during the last 35 years. Drawing on secondary official databases containing information from students, schools and districts, we explore through descriptive and multivariate analysis into which extent the main administrative and educational characteristics of the subsidised private sector had changed over the time and reshaped in relation to policy decisions. The analysis emphasises on the diversity of manners in which the privatisation process has developed in different territories and on how the recent reform towards regulating the quasi-market may modify this landscape. The paper also raises questions about the quality of the available data and detects gaps to a better understanding of the subsidised private sector in Chile after the implementation of the 2015 reform.
References
Valenzuela, J.P., Bellei, C. & de los Rios, D. (2013). Socio-economic School Segregation in a Market Oriented Educational System. The case of Chile. Journal of Education Policy, DOI: 10.1080/02680939.2013.806995. Carrasco, A. & San Martín, E. (2012). Voucher system and school effectiveness: Reassessing school performance difference and parental choice decision-making. Estudios en Economía, 39(2), 123-141.
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