Instruction as service or commodity: The outsourcing of education

The education system has traditionally provided instruction as a public service. But increasingly, instruction is treated as a commodity in the continuum of educational goods and services such as textbooks, bussing, and speech pathology. This work identifies changes in societal beliefs that impact the educational system, examines the expanding Education Industry---particularly in relation to two companies, Sylvan and Berlitz, and reports on findings (regarding benefits and problems for students, schools and administrators) that emerge from interviews the author conducted with 18 administrators from schools using the services of these companies. Inquiry in this field has been limited. This dissertation presents an extensive agenda for future scholarship including the critical question of the purpose of a public education system in modern society.