Private Equity

Private schools play a considerable role in national educational systems, and governments around the world must consider their role in the private education sector. This was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Mexican government closed all schools for seventeen months for student health safety. With the shutdown, the government implemented a distance learning program that used its educational television broadcasting system. Before the pandemic, about 10% of primary school students and 20% of secondary school students attended private schools, a considerable portion of the population. Unfortunately, school closures and the distance learning program impacted private schools significantly, as some private school parents began to question whether those school fees were worth the cost. 

This non-fiction case centers on the Mexican government’s decision to deny financial assistance to private schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though mass closures would push out thousands of students from the educational system. Private schools petitioned for tax relief and early permission to reopen, arguing that all income level communities depended on private education. The Secretary of Education at the time refused, explaining that the government’s responsibility to private schools was primarily curricular and not financial. 

This case raises questions for countries around the world where private schools educate a significant portion of the population: during times of crisis, what responsibilities do governments have to private schools, especially considering the public system? How should aid be distributed during a crisis? 

• Here is the news article covering Mexican parents of private school students shifting over to public schools (redirect) during the Covid-19 pandemic school closures.
• While there is little research about the impact of school closure in Mexico, research from other countries highlights the distress felt by students and families when their schools close. See Eve Ewing’s Ghosts in the Schoolyard (2018), for example, for an account of the trauma of public school closures in Chicago.
• Explore this article from the Cato Institute that analyzes the impact of Covid-19 on private schools (redirect) in the United States.
• For a fictional case, consider the case “On the Merge” (redirect) in which a rural district faces a severe budget shortfall caused by shrinking industry and declining enrollment, and a school board member must decide whether to vote to merge the town’s two high schools.