Difficulties and resistances of a reform to diminish the market dynamics of education

Abstract

In comparative terms, Chilean education is an extreme case of market oriented educational system; practically all policy instruments associated with this view have been intensively implemented in Chile across the country during several decades. The high level of privatization and socioeconomic school segregation are two consequences of this situation. As a response to the demands of the 2006 and 2011 student movements, the current government has launched a reform to diminish the relevance of the market dynamics in Chilean education, including ending public subsidies to for-profit schools, increasing free education, and strengthening public education. Based on an analysis of the public debate around the reform, this paper identifies the strong resistances faced by the reform. Thus, the Chilean case shows not only the strong capacity of the market to transform education, but also the difficulty to reverse those changes due to the parallel weakening of the state power in the education field.