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On The Policy Analysis Of Education Vouchers

Posted on:2008-12-31Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:H S LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117360212491408Subject:Educational Economy and Management
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Neo-liberalism, the New Public Management theory, the Public Choice theory and the increasingly deepening education equity theory provide an important thought inspiration for education vouchers. And the insufficient of government education funding, public criticism to the public sector as well as the public awareness of the choice right are impetus that put the idea of the vouchers policy into action.The initial design concept of vouchers is a kind of market or quasi-market approach. The operation principle is to develop favorable competition among schools with the purpose to enhance the education efficiency and to improve the goal of the education quality by means of the "Choice mechanism". Studying on the cases of different countries like United States, Chile, Colombia and China, the paper shows that the main goal of those countries, despite of different intentions, is focusing on creating the equal educational opportunities for disadvantaged groups in the practice.By analyzing and making comparisons of the effectiveness and implementation of the education vouchers policy of those countries with both their experiences of achievements and failures, the paper is trying to find some available suggestions which could be adopted by the Chinese case.Education efficiency and Education equity are the two core essentials concerned by the education vouchers policy.In discussing the relationship between the education vouchers and its efficiency, the paper, considering the parents' right of education choice and school competition as two important influential indicators in evaluating the efficiency, tries to explain how the education vouchers could probably influence on the education efficiency.The education vouchers require the following conditions to promote the competitions: first, it requires a certain number of schools able to provide the education services; second, the education level developed should reach a certain balance and the education service should have certain heterogeneity; third, there is competitively sufficient information available in the educational market.In speaking of the Chinese case relating to the implementation of the policy, it is more urgent to provide the equal right of enjoying the education opportunity and offer basically similar learning environment than to focus on the heterogeneity of the education service.The educational voucher policy can improve the efficiency because of the pressures from the competition; however the competition can not always be effective, unless the competition is of a modest one. The over- competition generated from the education vouchers will probably result in producing some conflicts with the basic value and function of the education. The failure in the competition, the number of elites rising and the cost growing in consequence of the competition of education vouchers may possibly destroy the efficiency. The unsuitable use of the education voucher will produce more significant social cost. Thus, in order to avoid this potential disadvantage, it is necessary to introduce more planning and management in the highly competitive market, and at the same time to pay more attention to the process of delivering that could affects the efficiency as well.It needs to solve the following three problems in considering the right of parent choice—theprecondition in improving the education efficiency; the availability of the right of choice; the willingness of the parents in exercising the right of choice; the correctness in using the right. In the practice of the policy, the completeness of the whole supportive measures decides the extent of the availability. In addition, establishing diversified schools, implementing the equal admission policy as well as providing the transporting method or subsidizes the transportation fees for the students are the basis that ensures the exercising of the right of parent choice.It is difficult to reach the same conclusion on the issue of the education equity with the experiences both broad and domestic. Whether the voucher could finally solve the equality problem is depending on its operation principle, for instance, whether the compensation function, the substitution effects as well as the restriction mechanism are inherently adaptive and supportive to solve the equity problem.Through designing the necessary system, on one hand, the vouchers do have positive effects in improving the inequality situation for the girls and disabled children as well and in distributing equally the education recourses; on the other hand, the voucher could at the same time stabilize or create new social classification which will, in consequence, have a negative impact on the education equality.The effectiveness of the policy is mainly depending on the policy designing, the supportive measures and the policy executing environment. To simply convert the education subsidy into the education vouchers can not improve the unfair situation in distribution of the education resources, which will, on the contrary, only duplicate the original inequality. In order to solve the education problem of the children of those migrant workers, besides considering the financial and other technical issues, we need also to reform the present inconsistence between the residence registration system and the schools register management system.To popularize the education voucher policy and reach the goal of education successfully, the supporting technology and system is in need. In considering the technical strategy, the paper examines the plan designing, the policy implementation and supervision from the aspect of the policy process theory, and discusses some details and operating problems which could be easily neglected in the process from the technical point of view. On analyzing the issue of system, the paper reconsiders the relations among the government, the market and the education as well. For the relations between the government and the market, the key problem is to find a reciprocal pattern between the two instead of choosing one of them uniquely. As for the government and school, the government should enter into the market with new attitude, liberating the public schools as the supporting part of administrative, offering them the real autonomy in setting up schools, thus making the public schools become independently public service producers, autonomy legal and market players.When we review the above relations, the essential question lies on the reformation of the government, which means to change its functions and make clear its responsibility in the education voucher policy. Specifically speaking, the government needs to undertake the following responsibilities in the education vouchers policy: Re-defining its leading position in the education, specifying the role as the arrangers of the education system; reforming the public educational finance system, taking the responsibility as the main provider of education funding; withdrawing from the commercial activities and cultivating a healthy and orderly education market; establishing a widespread participation mechanism and coordinating the relations between different policy groups; strengthening the interior accountability mechanism and establishing effective supervision system.The education vouchers policy is carried out in the context of reality with different historical, social, political as well as cultural conditions. It is easy to get somewhat one-sided conclusions if the research is taken without considering the specific background. Unless we study the education vouchers policy in a certain context, not making the judgment from the universal basis, then the valuable conclusion could be drawn from it. Both the theory and the practices indicate that the education vouchers may solve part of problems, but it also has the limitations. The education voucher is only a possible choice for the education reform, which can not solve all the complex problems in the education. However, this reform is complementary to the other reforming measures and innovations being carried out presently.
Keywords/Search Tags:Education Vouchers, Education Equity, Education Efficiency, Policy Analysis
PDF Full Text Request
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