The chapters in this book originated as papers for a conference, School Choice and Educational Change, held in March 2000 at Michigan State University. An introductory chapter provides a comparative analysis of the lessons learned from international experience with school-choice policies, based on a review of case studies in several countries. The…

Argentina and Chile have longstanding policies that give public subsidies to private schools. This paper uses data from 1997 from Argentina and Chile to compare the academic outcomes of seventh and eighth graders in public and private schools. Three types of private schools are analyzed: Catholic schools that are subsidized by the government,…

This paper analyzes the development of private education in Chile since the military coup of 1973, in the context of the military regime's neoconservative political and ideological aims. Despite these professed aims, copious evidence is presented to suggest that the need of an authoritarian state to maintain "national security" by…

The private sector is playing an increasingly important role in financing and providing educational services in many countries. (Often the term "private sector" encompasses households' out-of-pocket expenses rather than describing for-profit or not-for-profit sectors.) Private sector development has not arisen primarily through public…