ABSTRACT
The term ‘social justice’ is used frequently in education because of the expectation
that the educational system provide fairness in its access to opportunities and
results. Of course we know that in most countries the schools serving populations
with high levels of poverty, working-class families, immigrants, and minorities
show considerably poorer educational results relative to schools enrolling students
from more advantaged families. Advocates of educational privatisation believe that
a shift in policy from government schools towards a competitive marketplace of
private providers will be a strike for social justice. This claim proceeds from the
fact that school attendance zones are often defined by neighbourhoods
circumscribed by social class and race. A private market of schools supported by
government funding would enable families to escape these constraints.
