Neoliberal hybrid governance in public education

In this paper I review the current trends in the governance policies of education systems, analyzing the case of Spain with its latest educational laws. Policies that import and apply ideas and practices from the business sector to the public education sector, with the collaboration of new private actors and with the aim that schools are increasingly managed as businesses. This approach is known as "neoliberal governance." This neo-liberal management is driven through three indirect "soft power" strategies: the principles of choice and competition, performance standards and accountability systems, where the function of the State would be to monitor the results, leaving the actors to act autonomously. These control and management technologies serve to "govern without government," inviting themselves to submit themselves to education professionals and educational communities, who thus learn to govern themselves by following certain norms and beliefs established at a distance, which are deeply rooted. They are presented as efficiency, neutral and technical elements. It is thus generating "internal" policies that build a type of subjectivity and identity, (re) socializing in neoliberal principles, practices and values.