Term
| GENERAL VIEWS ON EDUCATION |
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Definition
Education is important for a successful economy but state education can be inefficient and drain on a country's resources.
This is because high government spending requires high taxes! Education needs to be run more like a business! |
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Term
| KEY THEORISTS: CHUBB AND MOE (1997) |
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Definition
Government bureaucracies, teachers and unionists = vested interest in increasing public expenditure on the school system. This undermines the autonomy of schools to provide what PARENTS want.
In private schools parents pay fees so the school listens ("consumers")
• State schools will only improve if consumers are given the power to change the schools - 'voucher system' where parents compete in an open market for students. |
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Term
| KEY THEORISTS: BROWN AND LAUDER (1997) |
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Definition
The economy has become subject to post-Fordist globalisation processes since the 1970s.
We need: a highly skilled, flexible and educated workforce that is able to compete in a global economy.
NEO-FORDIST APPROACH: cut costs and create incentives to improve standards = marketisation of education, money follows parental choice, success of some schools create a "trickle down" effect in order to influence others. |
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Term
| 8 CRITICISMS OF NEW RIGHT APPROACH |
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Definition
• M/C parents get their kids into the best schools whilst W/C kids are left in failure schools
• state-run community colleges - run on the principle that a mix of children will attend the same school + standards can be raised for all
• educational market may reduce choice (unpopular schools close down due to lack of support)
• choice is limited by geographical location
• schools have a limited capacity for expansion
• RANSON (1996): marketisation encourages damaging anti-social values (competitive individualism, selfishness etc)
• consumer choice can be socially divisive (hierarchies of schools will develop along class lines)
• BARTLETT AND LE GRAND (1993): the educational system will only ever be a quasi-market that will increase inequality of opportunity. |
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