Unequal Benefits: Privatization and Public Education in Canada

In this talk, critical policy scholar Sue Winton will draw on her book, Unequal Benefits: Privatization and Public Education in Canada, (University of Toronto Press), to explain how growing education privatization is undermining public education and democracy. Specifically, she will show how policies, such as fundraising, fees, and specialized schools and programs among others, enable some kids to accumulate more advantages from public education than other children, often reproducing patterns of social inequality that exist outside schools. She will then discuss ideas for resisting education privatization and strengthening public education’s commitments to equity, inclusion, open decision-making processes, and the collective good.

Sue Winton is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at York University and co-director of the World Educational Research Association’s International Research Network on Families, Educators, and Communities as Educational Advocates. Her current research examines privatization and public education. In one project she is examining advocacy for and against public funding of private schools in various Canadian provinces. In a second study, Dr. Winton and colleague, Dr. Beyhan Farhadi, are investigating online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Faculty of Education’s Public Lecture Series features leading scholars from the Faculty  sharing their research and scholarship on key publicly relevant issues in education and society.