Abstract
In 2015, the global community adopted sustainable development goals for 2030, including SDG 4 on education — a commitment to inclusive, equitable learning opportunities for all. Yet, in 2018, 264 million children still do not have access to education. Obstacles to free public education include insufficient funding, lack of infrastructure, and a concern about the quality of public education institutions. While the global community has reaffirmed the importance of high-quality, accessible education, it disagrees about who should deliver education and how. Some argue that the private sector is more efficient, while others claim that the state is the guarantor and must deliver on its responsibility for equitable delivery of free public education. This research examines how states balance these different priorities, with a specific focus on education privatization. After defining privatization using the Human Rights framework of the right to education, it seeks to answer: 1) what is the saturation of privatization globally? and 2) within the focus countries of the U.S. and India, how is education privatization distributed? We find globally saturation is highest among African and South East Asian nations which often have less public resources allocated to public education and a history of informal private models of education. We further find privatization is not uniformly distributed among focus countries. Instead, privatization is concentrated in urban areas which contain high concentrations of non-White students (U.S.) and in provinces where less public funding for education is available (India). Further research is needed on the link between Global trade policy pressures and privatization models and the extent to which (if any) privatization encourages the divestment of States in public education.