Patrick J. Wolf and Stephen Macedo, editors, The Brookings Institution
2004
Much of the value of this terrific and timely but bulky (400 page) Brookings volume can be gotten from its fine introductory chapter by co-editors Macedo (Princeton) and Wolf (Georgetown). Ten more chapters offer case studies of the interplay of school choice and civic values in Europe and Canada, while the final five essays by U.S. experts seek to adduce lessons for the American policy context. The basic dilemma explored in these pages is familiar to everyone who has been awake during our school choice debates: will more choice lead to worrisome civic fragmentation and balkanization as diverse schools erase the hope of shared values and "common schooling?" The conceptualizers of this project sensibly went off to see what might be learned from the experience of countries where publicly funded school choice is normal rather than something viewed as a risky policy innovation. The findings are fascinating and illuminating. Though it's never easy to generalize about the education systems of other countries or to apply their experience in the American context, the basic finding of this book is that other countries accommodate pluralism, diversity, and choice in the supply of primary-secondary education by extending to all schools, public and private, a high degree of government regulation. It takes many forms, to be sure, sometimes focusing on inputs (e.g. curriculum, teacher qualifications), sometimes on school "inspections," sometimes on academic results. But as the co-editors observe in their introduction, "The story that follows is in the main about a certain sort of publicly funded pluralism in education: pluralism justified by value differences but contained by significant regulation and tamed by systems that ensure accountability. This is not a story about wide-open market competition among minimally regulated schools." There's plenty here to ponder as the U.S. school-choice debate evolves from whether there should be any to the terms on which it will be done and the policy structures within which it will be implemented. The ISBN is 0815795173 and you can obtain more information here.
