School infrastructure procurement by Public–Private Partnership: In the public interest?

The use of Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the education sector to construct and maintain schools’ infrastructure is under-researched by Educational Studies specialists. This article presents an assay of the use of PPP to procure school facilities, notably in developed contexts, where PPP arrangements are typically a product of the neoliberal privatisation of education. PPP arrangements allow governments to contract private sector partners to finance, design and construct school facilities infrastructure in exchange for state payments. The evaluation is complemented by a critical analysis of the WA Schools Public Private Partnership Project and three published Australian-based case studies. This sets the stage for a general critique and reflective discussion that considers the question raised in the title of this article, where it is suggested that PPPs have the potential to undermine the autonomy of schools and to deny their communities a resource critical to the development of a democratic society.