From bake sales to million-dollar school fundraising campaigns: the new inequity

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study examines the changing style, scale, and scope of raising private funds to provide resources for public schools. In particular, we focus on school fundraising, especially the role of discourse in scaling up school fundraising practices to facilitate education privatisation. Drawing from Stephen Ball’s policy sociology, and employing Maarten Hajer’s discourse analysis approach, we analyze a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign in one secondary school in a Canadian province. Our analysis shows how a discourse-coalition has emerged around Public Private Partnership Fundraising (PPPF) to legitimise an increasingly privatised effort to fund school infrastructure. In conclusion, we raise questions about the problematic nature of large-scale school fundraising, specifically, its impact on inequality between schools with different levels of community wealth.