Privatization and Educational Choice

396 Pages·1989·35.856 MB·English

by  Myron Lieberman (auth.)

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