Unions Decry Global Economy's Education Impact

By Jeff Archer

Jomtien, Thailand

Teachers' unions from around the world have issued a collective warning about the potential downsides of globalization, contending that the new global economy based on free trade and deregulation, if left unchecked, threatens the quality of, and access to, education in rich and poor countries alike.

The alarm was sounded in this resort city near the Gulf of Thailand, where some 1,100 delegates gathered for a meeting of Education International, a worldwide coalition of labor organizations representing education employees in 154 countries, including the United States.

Throughout the July 25-29 event, known as the World Congress, attendees decried what they see as a worldwide trend toward treating education more as a commodity than as a public good. Union leaders from the most prosperous countries joined their counterparts in the developing world in accusing governments of abandoning their responsibility by privatizing and commercializing education services in...