A second phase of privatization? Low-income families and private education in the City of Buenos Aires

Abstract

By the late 1940s, the Argentine educational system began to experience a process of educational privatization expressed in the increasing enrollment of students in private schools. Due to its sociodemographic characteristics and structural aspects of its educational system, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA) has been the epicenter of the privatization process. The aim of this paper is to provide a characterization of the most recent phase of the privatization of primary school enrollment in the City, and identify the demographic profile of those who have joined the private system in 2004-2014. Drawing on data from the Annual Household Survey of the CABA, we note, first, a strong trend towards privatization among lower-middle and lower-class families and, secondly, that the trend towards privatization is not yet exhausted among middle, upper-middle and upper-class households. The article ends with the outline of a research program aimed at identifying, now from a qualitative view, the deepest determinants of the process.