ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the privatization of schooling over the past decade or so in context, both historical and within Australian society as a whole. It emphasizes the central importance of the privatization of schooling for social justice, to show how it interrelates with general attitudes to the role of the state, and to make it clear that the privatization of schooling is a feminist issue. Privatization of schooling—involving either expansion and strengthening of private schools relative to public schools, or the abrogation of responsibility by governments for aspects of children's education within the public system—has some differences from privatization in tertiary and other forms of adult education because it involves 'children'. Privatization of the social wage, including schooling, moves us more powerfully towards the family wage model, with that which makes up people's living standards being purchased in the private market place with the earnings of a breadwinner.
