Philip Woods and Carl Bagley's "School Choice and Competition" (Routledge 1998) evaluates the viability of allowing parents to choose the school their children attend within a decentralized, market environment. Despite methodological shortcomings, the authors argue effectively for schools' resistance to "competitive" social…

Discusses the marketisation of education in Singapore since the mid-1980s. Describes and analyses two major manifestations of this phenomenon: encouragement of greater school autonomy and fostering of competition among schools. Argues that Singapore has a regulated market, which threatens to exacerbate the disparities between schools in terms of…

Although the driving philosophy underpinning British educational reform since 1988 has emphasized "quality" and "choice," few governmental pronouncements have addressed equity issues. This article defines "equity," focusing on distributional equity as a framework for examining reforms such as formula funding,…

On January 31, 1996, Pioneer Institute Executive Director James A. Peyser delivered an address to the Boston Economic Club, in which he proposed radical reforms to the structure of public education. This publication contains an edited transcript of the speech. The speech argues that after 30 years of stagnation and decline, only fundamental…

Business should participate in school reform but has too narrow a perspective to guide it. Nationalizing education through comparative testing is a move to cut spending for social services, to increase accountability and efficiency without increasing financial responsibility or equity. Imposing private-sector rules on public education undermines…