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Privatization and Educational Choice PDF

396 Pages·1989·35.856 MB·English
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Privatization and Educational Choice PRIVATIZATION AND EDUCATIONAL CHOICE MYRON LffiBERMAN M MACMILLAN © Myron Lieberman 1989 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WCIE 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. Excerpt on p. 122 from Free to Choose, copyright © 1980 by Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman, reprinted in the U.S.A. by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., and in Great Britain by permission of Martin Secker and War burg Limited. First published 1989 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Lieberman, Myron, 1919- Privatization and educational choice. 1. United States. Education. Reform I. Title 370'.973 ISBN 978-0-333-52276-9 ISBN 978-1-349-20211-9 (eBook) DOI10.1007/978-1-349-20211-9 For Wally and Jess, and the memory of my sister Elinor. Contents LIST OF TABLES ix PREFACE xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii 1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PRIVATIZATION AND CHOICE FOR EDUCATION 3 2. SHOULD GOVERNMENT BUY OR MAKE EDUCATION? 25 3. EFFICIENCY ISSUES IN EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE 57 4. LESSONS FROM THE OEO FIASCO 85 5. EDUCATIONAL CHOICE AS A MEANS TO EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT 118 6. COMPETITION UNDER VOUCHER PLANS 152 7. NONEDUCATIONAL ARGUMENTS FOR VOUCHERS 191 8. THE POLITICS OF CHOICE 230 9. EDUCATION FOR PROFIT: BIG BUSINESS OR COTTAGE INDUSTRY? 257 viii / CONTENTS 10. THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE: LOAD SHEDDING 272 11. ETHICAL AND POLICY ISSUES IN EDUCATION FOR PROFIT 310 NOTES 351 INDEX 374 List of Tables 2.1 Services Contracted Out 34-35 4.1 Invitation for Bid (IFB) vs. Request for Proposal (RFP) 110 5.1 Independent School Income and Expenses, 1984-85 126 5.2 Gallup Poll on Vouchers, 1970-83 135 5.3 Percentage of Public School Teachers Who Send Children to Private Schools 136 7.1 Average Semesters of Coursework Completed, 10th to 12th Grades, Students in Academic Pro- grams 208 7.2 Percent of Private School Students Who Received Publicly Funded Services, 1983-84 222-223 Preface In 1986 I published Beyond Public Education, a book that argues that the educational reform movement in the United States is essentially a futilitarian effort. Nothing that has happened since then has led me to change this conclusion; if anything, subsequent developments have led to wide spread albeit not unanimous agreement with this point of view. In that book, my contention was that schools for profit could avoid the obstacles that frustrate conventional school reform. Although this conclusion still seems valid, I have come to realize that such schools are not the only way, or necessarily the best way in all circumstances, to utilize the for-profit sector to provide educational services. This real ization was partly a consequence of a more intensive analy sis of the privatization and educational choice movements. Eventually I recognized a need to assess educational reform from a broader perspective than characterized earlier pub lications. For example, discussions of educational choice typically treat it as an isolated phenomenon and rarely con sider the underlying social forces that generate pressures for more differentiation among products and services. This book, then, constitutes an effort to relate educa tional improvement to the privatization movement -and to certain broad social changes as well as to circumstances within the field of education itself. Regardless of whether readers agree or disagree with my resolution of various is sues, the book is intended to generate discussion of several neglected issues in educational policy and practice. xi Acknowledgments In writing this book, I was helped by several people over a two-year period. With apologies to anyone inadvertently not mentioned, I would like to express my appreciation to the following persons for various courtesies, criticisms, and suggestions related to the manuscript: Gregory Amig, Educational Testing Service; Marc Ben dick, Jr., Washington, D.C.; Mark Blaug, London, En gland; David D. Boaz, Cato Institute; Alan Campbell, ARA Services; John Chubb, Brookings Institution; James S. Coleman, University of Chicago; Bruce S. Cooper, Fordham University; Larry M. Cuban, Stanford University; Stanley M. Elam, Phi Delta Kappan; David F. Englehardt, Independent School Management; John Esty, National Association of Independent Schools; Michael Farris, Home School Legal Defense Association; Arnold Fege, National PTA; Milton Friedman, Hoover Institution; Nathan Glazer, Harvard University; Don Hendricks, American Learning Corporation; Albert O. Hirschman, Princeton University; Glenn A. Hogen, Sylvan Learning Corporation; Robert P. Inman, University of Pennsyl vania; Thomas H. Jones, University of Connecticut; Ted Kolderie, University of Minnesota; Robert Lytle, Bir mingham, Michigan; Jacob B. Michaelsen, University of California at Santa Cruz; Russell Miller and Michael Ward, Huntington Learning Centers; Caroline More, Ea gle Forum; Charles O'Malley, U.S. Department of Educa- xiii

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