Stephen J Ball  
This post originally appeared on the BERA blog
On September 26^th 2014 Secretary of State Nicky Morgan told The Financial Times: “I don’t think that there is a place for the profit element in education”. Ms Morgan seems not to have noticed that for-profit activity already plays a huge role in public education in England.
Both the New Labour and Coalition governments have contributed to a legal and administrative infrastructure which enables profit making. There has been a proliferation of new opportunities for profit-making as schools, colleges, universities, local authorities and central government award service contracts or buy services from private providers – services that in many cases were previously provided by local authorities or the need for which has been created by policy changes. Most supply teachers are now employed by private agencies. Most school examinations and tests are run by (more…)