Introduction

Research on education privatization in low-income country contexts has tended to distinguish between privatization processes resulting from governments enacting pro-privatization policies, on the one hand, and privatization processes that have occurred without government intervention, on the other hand (Rose, 2005; Verger et al, 2016). The latter has been characterized as ‘default’, ‘de facto’, or ‘grassroots’ privatization, emphasizing the lack of proactive policy making involved in its development, especially when compared to ‘traditional’, neoliberal policy making actively creating educational markets and encouraging different forms of private provision (Caddell and Ashley, 2006; Tooley and Dixon, 2006; Tooley, 2013). This trend of default privatization has manifested itself through the proliferation of what are frequently known as ‘low-fee (or low-cost, or affordable) private schools’, among other somewhat more idiosyncratic names (for example, ‘garage schools’ or ‘marginal schools’; see, for instance, Srivastava, 2007; Harma, 2013; Languille, 2016). In essence, low-fee private schools (LFPSs) are privately owned and privately run schools targeting lower-income households or marginalized populations that often live in areas underserved by public schools. LFPSs are most frequently an urban phenomenon and ownership can vary across different contexts ranging from enterprising individuals to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and faith-based organizations. However, in recent years, many international aid agencies, development banks, corporations, and philanthropic organizations have started to promote this type of school as a cost-effective means of extending educational access. This support has resulted in the expansion of for-profit chains of LFPSs, at times through direct funding of the LFPS sector from governments and international actors (Riep, 2014; Junemann and Ball, 2015; Srivastava, 2016).

By now, LFPSs are a widely documented phenomenon. Much research has been produced examining the origins, quality, inclusivity, and affordability of LFPSs across different contexts, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, where LFPSs account for a significant part of the schooled population (for a review, see Day Ashley et al, 2014; Tooley and Longfield, 2015; Verger et al, 2016). Some researchers have also looked at the phenomenon in South America, where they have shed light on the interdependencies between LFPS expansion and government deregulation and subsidizing in Peru and Argentina (Moschetti, 2015; Balarin, 2016; Balarin et al, 2019; Moschetti and Lauria Masaro, 2020).