Policy Futures in Education

Volume 7 Number 1 2009

www.wwwords.co.uk/PFIE
31 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2009.7.1.31
Rethinking the Role of Elite Private Schools
in a Neoliberal Era: an example from Chile
EDUARDO CAVIERES FERNNDEZ
University of Wisconsin Madison, USA
ABSTRACT Neoliberalism has brought a privatization trend that has deeply affected the
structure of the educational system of countries. While public schools lag behind, new forms
of private schooling have arisen creating different forms of inequality. Nonetheless, in Chile
the major inequality exists between schools attended by low and middle income students
and those schools that have traditionally served students coming from the economic elite of
the country. In a period when Chilean educational policies do not mention this issue at all,
this article presents an example from a traditional private school in Chile that helps both to
pay attention to this phenomenon as well as to seek ways to address the consequences
brought about by the logic of the privatization wave that affects the educational system.
Introduction
Neoliberal educational reforms introduced in recent decades seek to increase equality and quality
education within a paradigm of market efficiency and competition to enhance national economic
progress (Whitty, 2002, p. 80). Consequently, the goal is to transform the educational system into a
quasi market in which privatization is introduced in an ideological if not a strictly economic sense
(p. 47). Schools, therefore, are expected to introduce a notion of management similar to the one
used in the private sector, that enhances parental choice and aligns itself to state practices of
accountability that without interve[ning] directly in the everyday practices of schools ... [these
practices] govern schools from afar to promote the new conception of educational efficiency
(Hursh, 2005, p. 6). In this context, education is seen as a private good rather than a public issue
that fits better within the markets goals (Whitty, 2002, p. 47).
In a Chile highly impacted by economic-oriented reforms much of the current debate centers on
how to correct the deficiencies resulting from the quasi marketization and privatization of the
educational system especially related to the exclusion of poor students from the overall economic
development of the country (Colegio de Profesores, 2005, p. 6). The government has proposed a
new educational law that regulates the activity of for-profit schools and reduces the school years in
which students can be selected according to their academic performance or according to their
social, cultural, or economic background (Bachelet, 2007).
However, although these regulations might correct some of the blind spots of the quasi market
model, it seems that its core will remain untouched. Not only does the new law not question the
ideological assumptions of marketization and privatization but it will also only affect state-financed
private schools predominantly attended by students from the working and middle classes. In the
meantime, the government has explicitly limited the effect of the new legal regulations when
referred to elite private schools that receive no public funding but charge high fees (Diario El
Mercurio, 2007) and that best represent a model for successful schools in the country, although
producing serious consequences in the rest of the educational system.
Eduardo Cavieres Fernndez
32
In this article I examine this overall neoliberal trend and how it affects the educational system,
specifically some of the effects that result from the limited regulation of elite private schools. To do
so, the article describes the effects of educational privatization in Chile and specifically focuses on
the example of an elite private school from the city of Valparaso. Along with this, drawing on the
notion of group mobilization, this example is also used to show how parents belonging to elite
private schools can mobilize to question the current trend and to propose how their schools can be
connected to the public good.
Global Neoliberalism, Privatization, and the Resulting Inequality Gap
During recent decades, critical theorists have claimed that neoliberal policies have sought to place
the market as the main source of stability and economic growth for countries (Apple, 2004). In
order to do so, neoliberalism has replaced the state role of operating as a mediator between
different social groups political interests and has placed the state under the logic of private
investment and the self-regulating market (Torres, 2002, pp. 368-369). This means that neoliberal
proponents do not intend to set the state aside to give way to the market, but rather they expect
the state to enable the market to work more effectively. The political imagery of the social state
has been usurped by the notion of the enabling state (Hall, 2005, p. 155).
Consequently, in education advocators of neoliberal reforms maintain that the most efficient
way to deal with problems in the educational sector is to transform the sector into a quasi market
(Wolff & Moura, 2005, p. 14). In this quasi market different forms of schooling can be offered to
parents so they can exercise their legitimate right to choose the best option for their children
(Chubb & Moe, 1990, p. 206). Hypothetically, if parents are granted that right, schools will have the
pressure of competing between themselves to achieve better academic performances so as to
become more attractive to parents. By doing so, schools will not only increase their enrollment but
there will also be an overall improvement of the educational system in favor of all students (Hoxby,
1994). As Hill (1996) explains, school choice will strongly benefit all children, including the
disadvantaged, by promoting candid and demanding relationships among teachers, parents and
students that are essential to effective schooling (p. 671).
Thus, in neoliberal-oriented countries, state policies have been prescribed related to curricula,
standards, and academic accountability to determine what should be taught in schools and how it
needs to be assessed (Gonzlez, 2005, p. 228). With those mandates, the state has been expected to
demand the improvement of schools performance throughout the entire educational system. At
the same time, states have supported school choice by funding private schools such as
voucher/subsidized schools (McEwan, 2000; Arenas, 2004, p. 380), making them accessible to low-
income families (Glenn & Groof, 2003, p. 230) and giving them broad management autonomy
(Belfield & Levin, 2005, pp. 1-20). This autonomy has also favored elite private schools that do
not require any state financial support but charge high fees to compete for the best performances.
On the other hand, after several years of these policies being implemented to provide equal
opportunities for all, critical research has claimed that what actually has resulted is an increase in
selectiveness, discrimination and inequality that is reproduced, extended and legitimized (Gillborn
& Youdell, 2000, p. 2). However, whereas arguments can be frequently found claiming that audit
practices are responsible for not reducing the inequality gap (Gillborn & Youdell, 2000; Valenzuela,
2005), it is not so common to find clear statements pointing out the responsibility of elite private
schools, favored by recent policies, in producing social and academic inequalities in the educational
system.
Still, it is evident that the introduction of a pro-privatization neoliberal logic in countries has
made public sector institutions operate more like private sector ones [with the result that] families
treat educational decisions in a similar way to other decisions about private consumption (Whitty,
1998, p. 94). The most complicated aspect of this logic is that while education is seen as a market, it
does not acknowledge that the market works as an individualistic arena where only those that are
well positioned within the corporate private economy can succeed (Apple, 2006). The consequence
has been the increasing inequality gap between poor students and those belonging to higher
income classes (Hill, 2003).
Rethinking the Role of Elite Private Schools
33
In countries where neoliberal policies have been implemented, such inequality can be observed
in the immense gap that exists between elite private schools and public educational institutions. In
these countries, while education policies have favored neoliberal accountability practices that have
made elite schools much more competitive and therefore more successful these regulations do
not address the underlying economic and social structural inequalities under which public schools,
when compared to these elite schools, look inefficient and underperforming. Using Bourdieus
(1984) description, public schools have been introduced in an integrative struggle, and by virtue of
the initial handicaps, [in] a reproductive struggle, since ... they are beaten before they start (p. 165).
From this point of view, following Whitty (1998), it can be claimed that individual rights
[especially those belonging to upper-middle-class students] are being privileged at the expense of
the notion of a just social order (p. 94). Consequently, neoliberal policies, along with the pro-
privatization mentality these introduce, are in conflict with a pedagogic tradition that argues that
schools should not be directed to individualistic economic goals but rather to provide a social
education [that] develops the foundation of a questioning, active citizenship that makes
problematic not only social outcomes but also social structures themselves, including economic
ones (Hursh & Ross, 2000, p. 6), as well as promoting concern for the welfare of others and the
common good (Beane & Apple, 1995, p. 7).
Under such a paradigm of education for social justice, state policies would not only try to make
working-class students achieve real equal opportunities, closing the gap with students from the
higher classes, but would enhance class integration so that all social groups can support each other
to bring about more equal structures. In this sense, this article does not claim that elite private
schools per se will always necessarily embody a neoliberal and individualistic conception of how
schools and society should operate. As we will see, in this neoliberal era it is actually possible to
find some examples of how private schools can also be reacting in favor of socially oriented goals.
The Struggle of Social Groups
In times of hegemonic market-based policies, with their individualistic effects on education,
progressive political struggles are required to look for discourses and practices to challenge it, and
to replace this trend with viable alternatives concerned with the public good. Group movements
constitute one of those places where it is possible to struggle in favor of alternatives. As Apple
(2000) states, long lasting transformations in education often are shaped not by the work of
educators and researchers, but by social movements that push our major political, economic, and
cultural institutions in specific directions (p. xi).
Nevertheless, the possibility of group mobilization cannot ignore the fact that the formation of
movements is a difficult and complex process deeply embedded in the global context in which they
are situated (Apple, 2000, p. xii). Movements exist in relation to social structures which influence
them in many ways through political and economic elite forces that in order to reach dominance in
society use their power to shape the needs of the people and place them in a subordinate compliant
position (Hoare & Nowell, 1971; Buras & Apple, 2006, p. 4). However, because movements are
also dialectically positioned in relation to elite leading groups they can also resist and oppose them.
In this sense, the hegemonic neoliberal trend is by no means perfect; fractures and cracks are
constantly appearing even within the same group of people who may be benefiting from it (Apple,
2006, p. 50). As Apple claims, fragile compromises may come apart because of the sometimes
directly contradictory beliefs held by many of the partners in the new accord (2000, p. 32). For that
reason, although it is reasonable to think that political struggles to oppose practices of
marketization and privatization of schools have to mark their distance from these practices by
aligning themselves to public schools that are more closely linked to the ideals of democratic
education and social equity (Kohn, 2004; Torres, 2007), the analysis of tensions inside the dominant
wave shows that mobilization is also carried out by those belonging to the same private
educational institutions that are supposed to receive all the benefits of the neoliberal model.
Despite the fact that these groups may not have a clear and strong degree of awareness and
commitment to social transformation, they can still challenge significant aspects of the dominant
order. The case of the group mobilization I will examine is formed by a group of parents that while
protecting their own rights have brought tension within the privatization practices operating in the
Eduardo Cavieres Fernndez
34
city of Valparaso. These parents have done so by connecting their struggle to the wellbeing of the
city, and, therefore, to a socially oriented goal.
The Implementation of Neoliberalism in Chile
For almost 30 years the predominant economic thought in Chile has been neoliberalism. These
ideas have proved effective in creating a uniform mentality in Chile. As Chonchol (1999) argues,
this ideology that is almost a theology has significantly penetrated the Chilean mentality, even
within those that say they are from the political center or from the left (p. 66).
An important way of producing that effect has been achieved by providing economic figures
according to which, under the influence of neoliberalism, Chile has attained significant economic
development. The World Bank has affirmed that Chiles growth has been impressive: per capita
income has doubled since 1990 (World Bank, 2006, p. 6). Neoliberalism has favored the promotion
of investments, trade liberalization and exportations (Ffrench-Davis, 1999) that along with well-
targeted social policies, has led to a sharp drop in poverty. The official poverty headcount has more
than halved since 1990, falling from 38.6 percent in 1990 to 18.8 percent in 2003 (World Bank,
2006, p. 6).
However, while the official records try to prove the effectiveness of the model, other analyses
point otherwise arguing that neoliberalism has also concentrated wealth and economic power
within a dominant business group (Cademartori, 2004, p. 141; Fazio, 2005). Along with those
analyses, other statistics give evidence that while most of Latin America has decreased its rate of
unequal income distribution, Chile has shown no improvement for the past 8 years (ECLAC, 2006,
p. 15).
There have also been major changes in education since the 1980s owing to neoliberalism
(Rounds, 1997, p. 213; Torche, 2005, pp. 321-324). In first place, as part of a decentralization
strategy, the administration of public schools was devolved to municipalities (Rounds, 1997,
p. 214), and, secondly, school funding started to be given to each school according to the number of
students enrolled in it, following the concept of vouchers but with the Chilean peculiarity that
funds [the voucher] follows the student (Torche, 2005, p. 322).
Once vouchers were introduced in the educational system, along came the promotion of school
choice and the allowance of private schools [to] receive the [state] subsidy in exchange for not
charging fees to students (Torche, 2005, p. 321). As a result, a significant sector of
private/subsidized (voucher) schools was created. As for existing elite private schools, which
traditionally charged high fees and were mainly aimed at the wealthiest families, they remained
untouched as they did not opt to take the government voucher, which was low in comparison to
their fees (p. 322).
During recent years, a new debate has centered on the public funding of subsidized schools and
the legitimacy of the state in supporting private management. On one hand, opponents argue that
it has taken money away from public schools and has weakened the structure of the public
educational system (Colegio de Profesores, 2005, p. 6). On the other hand, privatization advocates
claim that private subsidized education has opened possibilities for diverse forms of educational
projects, has protected parents rights regarding education, and has supported a type of schooling
that benefits the country (Vargas, 2003, pp. 407-409).
In the meantime, such debate has blocked the analysis of an important form of private schooling
existing in Chile which is attended by upper class students. These schools, although covering a
small sector of the student population, have derived the most benefit from current neoliberal
policies promoting competition, as under such a paradigm, elite private schools with their
privileged social and economic background have been able to succeed more than any other group
in Chile without having to meet any particular form of moral or legal regulation (Carnoy, 2004,
p. 88). In this sense, attending elite private schools in Chile is viewed as a legitimate right for those
who are able to afford it and which doesnt necessarily include a responsibility towards the rest of
the population. Consequently, there has been no special concern about the effects elite private
schools have in the country, about the increasing gap that exists between them and those schools
that receive students from lower income sectors, and whether elite schools should receive more
regulations.
Rethinking the Role of Elite Private Schools
35
As important as it is that public schools receive greater economic support to improve their
performance, this cannot be achieved without a close examination of an increasingly strong elite
private sector which predominates in the country. This sector is formed by those that can afford
the expensive schools that provide the cultural pedigree (Bourdieu, 1984) needed today in Chile to
succeed. For that reason, it is not reasonable to think that the unequal social and economic gap that
exists between students from upper classes and the rest of the student population can decrease by
open competition between schools from different sectors, because this competition has been
contextualized in a market that leaves structural inequalities untouched. Thus, such competition
has only reinforced those groups that already hold an advantageous position (Apple, 2003).
To support this claim, we can use the evidence provided by the accountability instruments used
in Chile to measure schools performance which reflects the huge gap that exists between elite
private schools and schools receiving students from a lower income background. The first form of
measurement is the national test SIMCE. According to 2006 results (SIMCE, 2007), when students
from the second year of high school were tested, public school students (43% of the total number
of students who were tested) scored, on average, for the subjects of language and mathematics, 242
and 236 points respectively. Subsidized (voucher) school students (50% of the total number of
students) scored 257 and 256 points; while private elite school students (7% of the students, all
belonging to the upper income sector) scored 305 and 325 points.
These differences are totally in line with the results that students just graduated from high
school in 2006 scored in the PSU exam to enter public universities (Universidad de Chile, 2007,
p. 48). In that case, the average score for students from public schools was 456.9 points; for
subsidized (voucher) schools 490.3; and for private schools 597.6. In terms of how many students
from each sector scored within the range that allows them to apply for the best career programs
(between 600 and 850 points), the figures indicate that 4773 came from public schools; 8850
students came from subsidized schools; and 9883 came from private schools.
There is also an important gap between the total number of students who take the exam and
those who are eventually accepted in the university (Universidad de Chile, 2007, p. 83). Out of
61,780 students from public schools 19.8% were accepted; out of 67,944 students from subsidized
schools the percentage was 26.2; and from 18,702 students that belonged to elite private schools,
44.1% were accepted.
Many other analyses can be made to further argue that elite private schools, and students within
them, are certainly in a privileged position in Chilean society. As a consequence, private schools
will continue to admit most of their students from the upper classes, will continue to be able to
charge expensive fees, and therefore, to be able to build better facilities and to implement those
educational programs that in the long run will only deepen the gap between students from upper
and lower classes. At the same time, this will move elite schools away from participating in a
national educational project that can open space for a broad common good.
Elite Private Schools Behavior in Valparaso and the Salva la Scuola Reaction
Even though the differential gap occurs within schools, it should not be understood as an isolated
educational phenomenon but as a part of those broader neoliberal economic trends. Chilean
society continuously reproduces a process of class stratification that touches different levels and
aspects of national life. Private schools in many ways participate in that process of stratification,
benefiting from it as well as reinforcing it. Hence, schools constitute an important site where
privileged groups can continue to maintain their predominant position.
In order to maintain their status and to differentiate themselves from other social groups, high-
income groups have tended to remove themselves to exclusive residential areas that are distant
from the traditional urban centers. This has produced what Rodriguez (2001) calls a socioeconomic
residential segregation defined as the relative lack of socioeconomic integration between cities
territorial subunits (p. 9). According to Rodriguez, this segregation also constitutes an enormous
challenge, because it generates harmful effects on the decentralization process, the quality of life,
and the options the poor have for their social mobility (p. 7).
Residential segregation not only homogenizes residential areas according to socioeconomic
levels, but at the same time affects the interrelation between different social classes in a region
Eduardo Cavieres Fernndez
36
creating a division between better and worse places to live. These new high-income residential
neighborhoods not only include new housing but also an entirely new system of services that
enables complete separation. Money follows these new places while impoverishing those that are
being left behind. Following this logic, among the new services offered are private schools with
adequate resources to attract the local student population, and a population culturally and
economically predisposed to achieve higher academic performances (Parry, 1996). In this way,
these students will also be segregated from poorer students, increasing the economic and academic
gap that already exists between them.
During the last few decades, the city of Valparaso has suffered a profound reconfiguration.
There has been a mass exodus of the upper classes to areas outside the city or to the distant sectors
of Reaca and Bosques de Montemar of the adjoining city of Via del Mar. These last sectors have
become the most expensive residential areas of the region, and thus, in recent years, important
private schools have moved into them from other places, making huge economic investments
(Diario El Mercurio de Valparaso, 2006a).
In 2005, the school board of a traditional private school in Valparaso, the Scuola Italiana,
decided to move the school from Valparaso to Bosques de Montemar (Diario La Estrella, 2006). The
board argued that, because of the Scuolas location in Valparasos crowded downtown, the
building could not be enlarged to attract more students, and the enrollment had decreased by 25%
in the previous 2 years. In order to increase enrollment, the administration considered it necessary
to build a bigger structure which required moving to a more spacious area located in the adjoining
city where a larger population of upper class students could be enrolled. Added to this, the building
presented several deficiencies such as a lack of parking spaces and sports fields (Diario La Estrella,
2005).
The Scuola Italiana is administrated by a Corporation called Societ Italiana dIstruzione (SIDI)
that run schools in the region of Valparaso and whose main goal is to promote educational
activities which increase the cultural bonds between this region and Italy. At the beginning of May
2005, SIDI voted in favor of a proposal to sell the Scuolas traditional building to a commercial
company. While the SIDI planned to use the new funds to build a new school in the sector of
Bosques de Montemar, the prospective owners of the old building made plans to build a mall in its
place (Diario El Mercurio de Valparaso, 2006b).
Following the SIDIs decision, firmly represented by the principal of the school, an important
group of parents organized themselves as the Comit de Defensa Salva la Scuola (the Save the
School committee) to oppose this decision.[1] They replied to the school principals arguments,
remarking that the schools economic crisis could be solved by a renewed effort carried out by the
same school community. The parents committed themselves to increasing their participation in
order to preserve an institution they believed needed to remain in the city (Comit de Defensa
Salva la Scuola, 2006a). For these parents their position is consistent with the schools identity
embedded in long decades of educational service, and envisioned by the school founders who
belonged to the Italian immigrant community that settled in the city during the 1940s. The
founders vision was to build a school that not only taught their children, but also was a
contribution to the city which had received them.
For that reason, a great part of the committees arguments were not centered on the serious
difficulties that the children would encounter if the school were moved away from Valparaso.
Rather, these arguments were framed in relation to the impact that this decision would have on the
city itself. In the first place, the committee Salva la Scuola argued that the school was located in an
area of traditional commerce constituted by small shops which served members of the school as
frequent customers. If the school were moved and replaced by a mall, it would have serious
consequences on the economy of the area by closing small businesses (Comit de Defensa Salva la
Scuola, 2006b).
Secondly, Salva la Scuola claimed that the school has played an important role in providing
Valparaso with citizens who have historically contributed greatly to the citys cultural and
economical development. According to the committee, this has been possible thanks to an
educational project that cannot be understood outside the close relation that links the school with
the city (Follegati et al, 2006, p. 16). Finally, Salva la Scuolas strongest argument referred to the
buildings architecture itself as having an irreplaceable cultural and historical value that matches the
Rethinking the Role of Elite Private Schools
37
architectural style of the rest of Valparasos downtown, distinguished by its European style
combined with local and geographical peculiarities that give the city a beauty meriting its
appointment by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site (Follegati et al, 2006, p. 16).
Salva la Scuolas mobilization was successful in attracting public attention through media and
local campaigns. Former students joined this groups actions and the Italian community gave its
support to the committees initiatives (Diario La Estrella, 2007). An important strategy consisted of
working with the City Mayor, who was deeply concerned about the exodus of private schools, and
about a historic building being demolished or remodeled to fit commercial purposes.
With both the Mayors and the municipal councils support, the committee raised a proposal to
name the school building a national monument. This initiative was approved by the Consejo de
Monumentos Nacionales (National Monuments Council) and ratified by the Ministry of Education
at the beginning of 2007 (Alvarez, 2007). With this new status, the school building cannot be
remodeled or demolished. Thus, the committee has succeeded in stopping the selling of the school
building since it will no longer fit the original commercial plans. Even though the school can still
move away from the city, without funds this is rather unlikely to happen.
What Can We Learn from the Parents of the Scuola Italiana?
From the experience gained by the Scuolas group of parents, there are lessons that can be learned
about how to challenge and resist neoliberalism even if it is carried out by a group that would be
expected to be the main supporters of this model. These lessons can be grouped into three
categories related to the limitations of school choice, parent mobilization and the public role of
elite private schools.
The Limitations of School Choice
One key aspect of neoliberal reforms relates to school choice, and the transformation of the school
system into a market that gives diverse educational offers to parents and their children. Several
benefits can be achieved through choice including efficient administration, improvement in
students performance and a high sense of satisfaction among parents (Elacqua et al, 2006, p. 577).
However, as Hill illustrates, there are many difficulties to face: Pro choice leaders in government,
foundations, and think tanks face real decisions about how to fund and administer choice
programs, and it does not seem so simple (2005, p. 141).
In Chile, several suggestions have appeared proposing a series of regulations and inducements
to be introduced to correct the privatization model (Peirano & Vargas, 2005). While school choice
in the form of vouchers intends to provide middle and working class students with better
educational opportunities to reduce the social segregation that persists in the country (Elacqua,
2006, p. 17), the fact is that higher income groups appear to benefit from [vouchers] while lower
income groups suffer negative consequences because of the greater likelihood that higher income
groups take advantage of private alternatives (Carnoy, 1998, p. 336).
The case of the Scuola also reveals that school choice is facing more complex limitations as it
even fails to provide educational services to parents and students that come from the higher
economic classes. As the Mayor of Valparaso Aldo Cornejo (2006a) explains, the new residential
behavior of upper class groups that move away from the city promoting the persistent flight of
private schools to elite neighborhoods impoverishes the city. Further, due to the lack of private
school alternatives, it becomes harder to retain elite economic groups that wish to remain and
invest in the area (Cornejo, 2006b).
Could this be regulated by the state? The best way to put limits on social disparities has
traditionally been through taxes which can still be the solution for Chile. Former Chilean Minister
of Property, Nicols Eyzaguirre, agreed in 2004 that in order to improve education it was necessary
to increase taxes (Fazio, 2005, p. 83). Applying this notion to the educational problem described, it
could be a sensible idea to place special taxes on elite private schools depending on the territory in
which they are going to be built in order to discourage them from promoting socioeconomic
residential segregation. Even if they still decided to move into segregated areas, taxation would
produce new revenues for poorer schools.
Eduardo Cavieres Fernndez
38
However, official policies in Latin America, instead of including tax restraints, only consider tax
incentives (Wolff & Moura, 2005, p. 34) that liberate private schools from any economic
responsibility towards the broader community. In Chile, this issue has not been discussed at an
official level. In this sense, it becomes extremely difficult to overcome the limitations of school
choice because after all it constitutes part of an economic model that privileges certain groups over
others as well as certain hierarchies of interests over others.
As Apple (2006) states, to understand key concepts such as choice, it is necessary to look at the
broader context shaped by neoliberal accounts that rather than being a neutral description of the
world of social motivation, this is actually a construction of the world around the valuative
characteristics of an efficiently acquisitive class type (p. 32). In order to legitimize such a
construction of the world neoliberals have carried out a process of re-signification of discourses that
combine[s] both value and sense legitimation to win active consent for their agenda among many
people (Apple, 1999, p. 211). This means that while value refers to the set of demands that people
place on the state, neoliberal policies satisfy them not under the same sense in which people have
expressed those demands, but by connecting them with solutions contextualized into both market
talk and privately driven policies (Apple, 2006, p. 37).
However, as the case of the Salva la Scuola might be pointing out to us, such a process of re-
signification and commodification of social aspirations and needs that promotes a notion of society
as a vast supermarket (Apple, 2006, p. 32) does not necessarily satisfy or convince those groups of
people that, rather, are looking for the public good and for social solidarity. Accordingly, the
reaction of the Scuolas parents is representative in that it prevents the reduction of an educational
conflict into a mere economic and technical problem, but rather argues that school choice practices
can be extremely deficient because the offer they provide in the form of efficient and competitive
schools (Chubb & Moe, 1990; Belle et al, 2003) does not touch important aspects of peoples lives.
As Salva la Scuolas parents reflect, the educational offer of moving the school away from
Valparaso denies their children the opportunity to develop themselves in contact with a
surrounding city filled with traditions and experiences that can constitute a rich space of cultural
values where knowledge can be built (Follegati et al, 2006, p. 18).
For that reason, the choice offered by the principal of the Scuola was totally insufficient for
these parents. The proposal may have included better facilities, an elite background and a much
more competitive environment, but as the leaders of Salva la Scuola claimed, it does not have a
history, and the more history the place where we are formed has, the bigger the (human) wealth
and the better learning it will provide [us] (Follegati et al, 2006, p. 18).
Parent Mobilization
Parent involvement is a category that is at the core of neoliberal policies. Because parents are the
ones most interested in making sure the educational system works in favor of their children
(Chubb & Moe, 1990, pp. 147-149), they have to be allowed to participate in school communities
and be given space for their contribution.
However, in places like the United States, it has been well documented how parent
involvement has been transformed into the mobilization of both liberal and conservative parent
groups (DelFattore, 1992; Apple, 2006) to challenge educational practices that, according to their
beliefs, work against their principles and their childrens moral and academic formation.
Nonetheless, the consequences of some of these mobilizations have constituted a threat to the
public sphere because they have supported official policies that lead to the marketization of society,
narrowing the space for social integration and diversity (Apple, 2006).
On the contrary, Salva la Scuola constitutes an interesting case of parent mobilization that
challenges certain market trends and questions the supremacy of commercial interests. Certainly, it
is not reasonable to romanticize this mobilization either. In terms of the educational system,
parents from the Scuola Italiana do belong to a privileged economic class and it is not evident if
their mobilization deeply and consciously discusses the core beliefs of present neoliberal
educational practices or if they actually represent the interests of the majority of the citys
population. But still the parents of Salva la Scuola have engaged in practices that are interesting
Rethinking the Role of Elite Private Schools
39
because they contain elements of good sense to rethink the connection that should exist between
private and public institutions and this can be useful for other group mobilizations.
Binder (2002) presents two elements that are essential for social movements. The first one
relates to the notion of framing according to which movement leaders produce and employ frames
that will legitimate their goals [and] maximize the publics attention to and support for the
movement (p. 12). This element has a connection with the strategy used by Salva la Scuola to
build a discourse in which their personal interests are put in relation to the city. As they have
continuously argued, it is not only about their own school, but also about protecting the historical
heritage of the city. This allowed the committee to contend against a developing market trend that
impoverishes the city and does not pay attention to the cultural legacy which gives Valparaso its
originality. By doing so, they have been able to attract many voices that have no personal
relationship to the school but are still willing to support their claim.
Binder (2002) also introduces the notion of insider/outsider related to the actors location in the
challenged field [and to the] measure of different actors access to the routine structures of power in
a system (p. 12). Members of social movements may be initially located as outsiders but will seek
access or alliances within the structure of power to achieve their goals. Accordingly, the Salva la
Scuola mobilization has been successful in achieving the municipal authorities support. Therefore,
the parents have been able to appeal to those insiders that due to their commitment to the city
have the power to back their struggle and also have the political capital to attract support from
other political and education authorities in the country.
As a whole, the Salva la Scuola committee confirms the notion that mobilization is possible in
original and effective ways within a neoliberal context, even when it is carried out by people that
have a privileged economic position over the rest of the population. Even though parents may
show different levels of activism and ideological commitment, their experience proves that many
groups of people have not completely aligned themselves with hegemonic neoliberal forms and
have created scores of local examples of the very possibility of difference (Apple, 2005, p. 288).
Thus, although economic and political systems and the policies that go with them may seem
incontestable, the example of this group of parents shows us in the most eloquent and lived ways
that educational policies do not go in any one unidimensional direction (Apple, 2005, p. 288), but
rather, some of its contents can even be used to confront the goals of these policies.
In order to continue confronting neoliberal hegemonic policies, it is important that these
elements of disagreement coming from different sectors are able to build wide alliances in favor of
new educational projects. From this perspective, even though Salva la Scuolas arguments are not
centered on strictly educational analysis, they can still be linked to other mobilizations around the
country: for example, to the mobilization of students from the Chilean public sector that in 2006
protested against the educational system for reproducing the historical social inequality that
persists within the country (Dvila & Ghiardo, 2006). Perhaps, by seeking to address their mutual
needs, these groups are able to redirect the educational language away from the logic of
individualization to a logic that seeks the common good.
The Public Role of Elite Private Schools
Arguments in favor of private schools claim that their social role is to introduce a diversity of
projects in the educational system. As Wolff & Moura (2005) assert, private schools better reflect
the preferences of parents and students. Private schools meet social needs when they bridge gaps
left by the public education system, whether by catering to special needs populations or by
providing education geared to particular preferences (p. 24). However, in Chile, private schools
predominantly have selected students according to their higher socioeconomic background thus
increasing the achievement gap between these students and the majority of poor students (Garca
Huidobro, 2007, p. 23). In this context, it is difficult to understand how private schools can serve
the public good and not just exclusive private groups.
This is not to dismiss the fact that private educational projects can provide a service to the
public sphere, as long as they are framed by equitable policies. The debate brought up by the
Scuolas parents also shows how private educational projects can conceive their schools as not
solely preparing students for their individual benefit, but as educational institutions filled with
Eduardo Cavieres Fernndez
40
historical, cultural and symbolic heritage that prepare students to contribute to the development of
the whole country.
Clearly, it is not evident that this last aspect will be promoted in the Scuola Italiana or that the
Salva la Scuola committee will advocate for social changes in the city. This would require opening
space for a much broader discussion related to a curriculum reform that should also give guidelines
for private schools to reach social goals. Dario Salas (1967), the most important educator in Chile
during the past century, stated that education exists in benefit of the community, and its objective
is to turn each man into a factor of collective improvement and to give to each one the ability to
lend society the best service that their personal aptitudes allow him to give (p. 214). Broadly
speaking, this means that a new curriculum reform should be filled with discourses and practices
that encourage students to become aware of the world that surrounds them, and to take seriously
the fact that, in order to do so, they need to cultivate a real sense of social justice (Gutstein, 2006).
Although these proposals may be seen as idealistic and even merely rhetorical, they also provide
insight for a solution on how to reduce disparities within class groups and within schools. If private
schools were really concerned about the development of the cities where they belonged, and,
instead of segregating themselves they provided cultural and civic possibilities that went in favor of
the entire population, it could be hoped that these schools could also provide opportunities for
citizens from lower classes to raise their quality of life. Or at least, not to contribute to the
enormous gap that exists between them.
Conclusion
Throughout this article the intention has been to provide a context through which the issue of
private schooling and the effects it has on Chilean society can be addressed. Therefore, this article
does not advocate against the existence of private schools, but rather points out the relationship
that exists between these institutions and the market and the harmful consequences that it has on
other sectors of the country.
To provide a better description of the situation, as well as to be able to suggest practical
reflections, this article has presented a closer look at a situation in the city of Valparaso.
Specifically, I have offered the case of a parent group that have opposed the decision of selling their
private school to a commercial firm. These parents have persisted in their struggles, even though
with the money that could have been raised from this transaction it would have been possible to
move this school to an elite residential area. The article has also situated this conflict within a
context of a hegemonic neoliberal accord that has characterized educational policies at a global
level but particularly in Chile.
Therefore, this article is contextualized in the midst of an educational crisis due to the increasing
privatization and marketization of the Chilean educational system that has increased the social gap
between students belonging to different backgrounds. Having this context in mind, this article
provides evidence that different forms of resistance can be carried out to oppose the dominant
economic trend and that part of this effort can be carried out within the same group of parents that
would be expected to be satisfied with the marketization of the educational system. Building on the
importance of social mobilization, I present several lessons that can be learned from the Salva la
Scuola committee that are related to the limitations of school choice, to forms of parent
mobilization and to the need to readdress the relationship between private education and the
public good.
By reviewing these sets of arguments, I think it is possible to think about the limits of
educational privatization and of the influence of the market. Therefore, this article has also sought
to look beyond the conflict in Valparaso to better understand the role of private schools, and the
way parents that form part of them can contribute to build a better society for the benefit of all.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Juan Carlos Jeldes for sharing with me his struggle and his insights about how
our private schools and our city could be better. My special gratitude to David Hursh, Wayne Au,
and John Riofrio for their valuable feedback and suggestions.
Rethinking the Role of Elite Private Schools
41
Note
[1] In a personal conversation with Juan Carlos Jeldes, one of the main leaders of the committee, he
informed me that around 200 parents had been actively engaged. The number of school enrollments
usually reaches around 740 students.
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EDUARDO CAVIERES FERNNDEZ is a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,
USA. Correspondence: Eduardo Cavieres Fernndez, 601 A Eagle Heights, Madison, WI, 53705, USA
(cavieresfern@wisc.edu).