School vouchers, a school choice policy that allows students and families to use public funds to fully or partially pay the cost of attending private schools, became a major area of policy debate once again during Betsy DeVos's tenure as United States Secretary of Education. Recent evaluations have found negative impacts of vouchers on academic…

Social justice in education refers to the expectation that the education system provides fairness in its access to opportunities and results. Proponents of educational privatisation believe this would not only open up opportunities for those that otherwise are restricted from attending good schools, but that it would also improve overall…

Describes a comprehensive evaluative framework that draws on a larger range of goals that have been posed for education in a democratic and free society. Tradeoffs are made among criteria that include: (1) freedom of choice; (2) productive efficiency; (3) equity; and (4) social cohesion. (SLD)

The economic model of education policy assumes that there is a substantial consensus on educational goals among constituencies and that the major challenge is to determine the most effective strategies for reaching those goals. Unfortunately, the debate over educational vouchers is complicated by the presence of multiple and competing goals, and…

This article considers two issues regarding preschool education. First, it provides a brief set of arguments for government funding of universal, pre-school education. Second, it explores the applicability of a voucher plan using a regulated market approach for the funding of universal, pre-school education. Four criteria are used to assess the…

This paper focuses on a system of recurrent education in which individuals would have the opportunities to undertake educational and training activities in alternation with periods of work. Underlying the paper is the assumption that the financing approach to such a system would have to encompass most forms of postcompulsory education and…

The Supreme Court opinion of June 2002 in "Zelman et al. versus Simmons-Harris et al." is reviewed in this paper. In the first section, an interpretation of the ruling is offered in terms of four evaluative criteria: freedom of choice, productive efficiency, equity, and social cohesion. Unsurprisingly, the opinion strongly emphasized…

Major policy debates have arisen around the subject of vouchers as an alternative for financing and organizing the educational system. To a large degree, comparisons between vouchers and the traditional system of educational finance and school operations have been limited to one or two dimensions of education such as the relative impact of a…

Considers both market choice and public choice mechanisms with respect to their efficiencies in producing social and private benefits. A market approach to education appears superior regarding private benefits, whereas the public choice appears superior regarding social benefits. Neither system is cost effective, although the market system yields…

Student vouchers for higher education may have some positive impact on efficiency and equity in the operations of higher education, but the overall effects will not be changed since the uneven nature of government financing will not alter our social, political and economic environments. (Author/PG)

Controversies over the merits of public and private education have never been more prominent than today. This book evaluates public and private schooling, especially in regard to choices families must make for their children. While choice among public schools is widely advocated today by families and states, public support for private…

In 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court approved educational vouchers, a method of public funding for education by providing parents with a certificate that can be used for paying tuition at a public or private school eligible to redeem vouchers. Interpretations of the decision were many and often caused confusion as proponents and opponents to vouchers…

There is a need for a common educational core to satisfy the requirements for reproducing a democratic society. Although historically the common schools were couched in the rhetoric of a common educational experience, democratic localism tended to undermine the commonality through a large number of antidemocratic practices. However, recent decades…

Four types of federal grants used to address national concerns of educational equity are examined and evaluated: general aid to education, categorical grants for educational equity, block grants for specific groups of equity programs, and matching grants for educational equity. (CT)

Although explicit public-private partnerships are rare in education, there is a close connection between the public and private goals of education. Education inherently serves both public and private interests. Unfortunately, educational policy may find itself in conflict while simultaneously serving both public and private mandates. This article…