Abstract
Market forces have been widely proposed as a solution to the alleged inflexibilities and inefficiencies of school bureaucracies in a rapid changing postmodern world. Subjecting public education to the rules of the market arouses great passion among educational reformers, whether they are in favour or opposed. In this chapter, Boyd and Lugg review the arguments and, most importantly the evidence about the effects that market forces of school choice have had upon public education.
Seeking the “pragmatic, but precarious middle ground”, Boyd & Lugg move beyond absolute opposition to market influences of any kind, and beyond the nostalgic distortions through which past public bureaucracies are lavished with fake praise, to evaluate the evidence on marketization, as it has been played out in different contexts. They examine the contexts and causes of market-oriented influences in education, and succinctly summarize the key arguments of proponents and opponents.
What is especially interesting about the chapter is the way its authors tread beyond conventional “left” and “right” positions on this issue, by sketching out what the moral and regulatory boundaries of market systems in education might reasonably be. The chapter contributes strongly to the debate on school choice and charter schools that are taking place in many jurisdictions.
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Boyd, W. (2005). Markets, Choices and Educational Change. In: Hargreaves, A. (eds) Extending Educational Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4453-4_4
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