Deep Privatization of American Education

The Deep Privatization of American Education examines how artificial intelligence is changing who controls public schooling in the United States. Patricia Burch argues that education contracting has moved from the margins of schooling into its instructional core, as school systems adopt enterprise platforms that organize curriculum, assessment, grading, data, and communication. Chapters outline how AI is bundled into existing software and updated on vendor timelines rather than public ones, AI turns private products into public infrastructure that school systems did not design and cannot easily replace. Burch calls this deep privatization: private control that becomes constitutive of how public schooling operates, rather than incidental to it. Because AI interprets, classifies, and judges, this dependence reaches decisions about which students receive support, what counts as progress, and how learning is evaluated. Drawing on interviews, procurement and contract data, board records, and vendor financial reports, the book traces the consequences for democratic governance, equity, and students' civil rights. Rather than simply opposing outsourcing, Burch shows how school systems can strengthen the public institutions needed to govern contemporary privatizing dynamics and reclaim public control. It is essential reading for researchers, policymakers, school leaders, and students in education policy, educational leadership, and foundations of education.