Neoliberalism and Public Schools

One of the main tenets of neoliberalism is a transfer of economic power from the public sector to the private sector. I have experienced the effects of this transfer with how New York City seems to treat its public schools. As an example, the public high school I attended was in rough shape: it suffered from underfunded and overworked teachers, many textbooks they had were decades old, and most students did not treat the school seriously because all of them equated public education with lackluster education. My high school also had to share a building with another high school because there was not enough room in the main building, which was small and dingy.

Compare this with another high school that was both nearby me and private. It had its own campus and the school was better funded since parents had to pay for their children to attend it. Despite what you may be led to believe, students at this private high school took education just as seriously as my public high school. However, this doesn’t matter because most people assumed the private high school was superior anyways. Our lack of investment in public schools has led to the development of the perception that they are both terrible places to get an education and private high schools are a much better alternative.

Privatizing our schools also extends to higher education. Every college we can attend has high tuition costs. Most people are incapable of paying for the full tuition out of pocket, so they sometimes refer to student loans that can sometimes be predatory. Much like private high schools, people view private universities as prestigious, but to a much greater degree compared to private high schools. Colleges sometimes try to extract as much value as they possibly can, such as locking homework behind paywalls. In conclusion, neoliberalization has led to chronic disinvestment in our public schools and colleges trying to extract as much money as they can from their students.