Neoliberalism in Education

Neoliberalism is a Contagious Disease

What country do you think the following excerpt from Giroux's chapter (2008) purports to describe?

(a) Indonesia

(b) USA

(c) Indonesia and the USA

(d) none of them

In keeping with the progressive impoverishment of politics and public life over the past two decades, the university is increasingly transformed into a training ground for corporate interests and, hence, receding from its role as a public sphere in which youth can become the critical citizens and democratic agents necessary to nourish a socially responsible future. Strapped for money and increasinghly defined in the language of corporate culture, many universities are now modeled after the wisdom of the business world and seems less interested in higher learning than in becoming licensed storefronts for brand-name corporations -- selling of space buildings, and research programs to rich corporate donors. As higher education is corporatized, young people find themselves on campuses that look like malls . . .. . . . As higher education increasingly becomes a privilege rather than a right, many working-class youth either find it financially impossible to enter college or, because of increased cost, have drop out.
Not surprisingly, students are now referred to as "customers," while some university presidents even argue that professors should be labeled "academic entrepreneours". College presidents are now often called CEOs and have come to be known less for their intellectual leadership than for their role as fund-raisers and their ability to bridge the worlds of academe and business. What was once the hidden curriculum of many universities -- the subordination of higher education to capital -- has now become an open and much-celebrated policy of both public and private higher education. (Giroux, Henry A, Against the Terror of Neoliberalism: Politics Beyond the Age of Greed. London, Boulder: Paradigm Publishers. 2008, pp.102-103).

Even though Giroux refer his description to the US condition, but it applies to other countries as well, perhaps it may also apply to our country. This shows that neoliberalism is indeed a global contagious disease.

Your Govt is infected by neoliberalism disease!

How do you know if your Government is infected by neo-liberalism disease?

You will immediately know it by understanding the main points of neo-liberalism

The main points of neo-liberalism Martinez, (2000).

The rule of the market.
Liberating “free” enterprise or private enterprise from any bond imposed by the government (the state) . . . Calls for total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services . . . unregulated markets is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone.
Deregulation:
Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminish profits . . . including protecting the environment and safety of the job.
Privatization.
Sell state-owned enterprises, goods and services to private investors . . . in the name of greater efficiency.
Cutting public expenditures for social services
Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves – then blaming them, if they fail, as “lazy” ("fatalistic", "lack of need for achievement or McCleland's nAch -- added by me), etcetera.