EDER 677 - Telecommunications in Education Educational Changes Social / Administrative - "Privatization and Market Approach to Education" Educational change is not a new phenomena. Recently, however, this has been a regular practice. The funding that was once guaranteed has now been cut short. Accountability seems to be the catch phrase for the school districts, schools, and the professionals that work here. Schools are now responsible for their own budget and many are scrambling to stay out of the red. Parents are also a catalyst for this shift in education. They have been screaming for a long time for less rigidity in the system and have been lobbying the government to make this change. All these events when put together are the reasons why privatization and the market approach to education have taken shape. Kuehn (2002, director of BCTF research and technology, comments that this shift in education is due to policy changes in the new provincial government in BC. This policy change has allowed school boards to create a company to carry out business activities that would not be possible as a public body or that would expose the school district to financial liability (Kuehn, 2002). They are also allow to sell their services to overseas schools as well as handing out BC high school certification to students who attend these schools. International students have always been a hot commodity. Now, they are even more popular as ever. Many districts have moved quickly to bring in international students, who pay high tuition and top up the district budget. In 2000- 2001, districts charged an average tuition of $10,000. On average, they spent $5,000 per student, leaving an average profit of $5,000 (Kuehn, 2002). Distributed learning which relatively less know is "competing fiercely" with each other for new students. The Gold Trail district, for example, is offering to pay parents $750 per student for learning resources and $250 for Internet connections. The Nechako E-bus has advertised that it provides a computer and Internet links to families who sign up with the program. Some of the Regional Distance Education Schools have reported that students in their programs have moved to other programs that offer more incentives to sign up (Kuehn, 2002). The reason school districts are pursuing this is to raise money as funding is determined by the number of students enrolled. With student loads often 50 or more per distributed-learning teacher, some districts see making a "profit" on those students, even after giving a portion of the public funding to private individuals for learning resources, computers, and Internet links (Kuehn, 2002). With this deregulation, "a district can recruit students from other distributed-education programs or from among students who would otherwise be attending regular classes in their own or other school districts" (Kuehn, 2002). Enrolling in a distributed Masters program has given me insight to how things are done as well as how things should be done. The knowledge that I have gained has given me control to what is now a confusing time in education. The entrepreneurial approach to business has always excited me and knowing that the government is leaning this way has spurned many ideas in my head. There are many ways to attract students and our district has started many ventures to meet these students' needs. We have always had a strong international student program. Presently, we are now running a hockey academy with a fixed timetable for all the high school so that any student can attend. A rugby academy is in the works for next year. These are exciting times for me because I will be a leader in this shift in education. My graduate studies alone has given me a stronger insight in this change and for this I am indebted.