Every day, more than two million school support staff, also known as education support professionals, ensure that schools can operate and students can learn. Unfortunately, these critical positions are being threatened. Important school support services, including food service, custodial and building maintenance, transportation, clerical staff, school nurses and counselors, and paraeducators are being contracted out to private for-profit corporations. This often means that dedicated and experienced professionals are replaced with a less qualified and lower compensated workforce—and students lose trusted adults who routinely go above and beyond to ensure a safe, healthy, and high-quality learning environment inside and outside the school.
School Support Services Outsourcing: The Original Privatization of Education, a new report from In the Public Interest, explores why support services are critical to the success of students and the school, the risks and impacts of privatization of support services, why corporations are targeting support services, and efforts to push back against and prevent privatization in schools.