Bringing the Private Into the Public

Abstract

Substantial policy and political changes have resulted from a 2001 state takeover of the Philadelphia School District and the subsequent hiring of Paul Vallas as the district’s new CEO. Using the lens of urban regime analysis, which emphasizes the importance of public and private actors in forming a governing coalition, this article analyzes the Philadelphia education regime and the policies it has promoted. The author determines that although decision making is highly centralized under this governing coalition, the role of private actors helps to define the regime as a “contracting regime,” in which public-private interaction shapes the political and policy context.