Education privatization is a global trend that has nonetheless followed multiple trajectories. This article addresses the question of what explains this variation by demonstrating the role that political coalitions play in the re-interpretation of global privatization ideas. A political-coalitional approach helps us analyze from a long-term perspective, the interplay between ideational, political, and economic processes that occurred at the global and domestic levels. Both accumulated benefits and negative consequences of previous reforms realign domestic coalitions that then facilitate or constrain the selection of global ideas and shape the way in which they are implemented at the country level. Based on a comparative historical analysis of three countries, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia, the article identifies three privatization trajectories: marketization, erosion of public education, and dualization of education provision. The long-term analysis of these trajectories also shows that privatization is not a linear process but a complex dynamic with consequences that may trigger unintended changes in the future.