Other Resources

EPRU Finds Outsourcing Sometimes Saves Money but Often Costs More

Education Policy Research Unit (Arizona State University) finds that outsourcing of transportation, food, and custodial services provided by employees of school districts sometimes saves money, but it often costs more and can have negative, unintended effects. Read more about the brief on contracting out school support services. March 2008

GAO Report Finds No Gains in Privately Run Public Schools

The federal government's General Accounting Office (GAO) has issued a report that concludes that most privately run public schools perform no better and many perform less well than publicly run schools. Private for profit companies have contracts to manage public schools in about half of the states in the country. October 2003

Other Unions Offer Resources

The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees has a Web site that focuses on privatization issues.

The American Federation of Teachers also has information about privatization.

Non-Partisan Sources Offer Analyses of School Privatization

The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank that "seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy," offers a series of academic papers on privatization of government services (these are made available as PDF files for downloading).

The National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, at Teachers College, Columbia University, describes itself as an "independent, non-partisan source of analysis and information on privatization in education."

The Education Commission of the States does not take sides on the issue, but it does provide interesting material on its Education Commission of the States Web site.