Editing Education reform (section)

===School choice===
Economists, such as the late Nobel laureate [[Milton Friedman]], advocate for [[school choice]] to promote excellence in education through competition and choice.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010692249/OVIC?u=txshracd2560&xid=9264c583|title=School Vouchers Are a Good Way to Promote School Choice|last=Given|first=Casey|date=27 January 2014|access-date=10 December 2017}}</ref> Proponents claim that a competitive market for schooling provides a workable method of accountability for results. Public [[School voucher|education vouchers]] permit guardians to select and pay any school, public or private, with public funds that were formerly allocated directly to local public schools. The theory is that children's guardians will naturally shop for the best schools for their children, much as is already done at college level.

Many reforms based on school choice have led to slight to moderate improvements.  Some teachers' union members see those improvements as insufficient to offset the decreased teacher pay and job security.<ref>Whelan, Lessons Learned: How good policies produce better schools (2009)</ref> For instance, [[New Zealand]]'s landmark reform in 1989, during which schools were granted substantial autonomy, funding was devolved to schools, and parents were given a free choice of which school their children would attend, led to moderate improvements in most schools.  It was argued that the associated increases in inequity and greater racial stratification in schools nullified the educational gains. Others, however, argued that the original system created more inequity, due to lower income students being required to attend poorer performing inner city schools and not being allowed school choice or better educations that are available to higher income inhabitants of suburbs. Thus, it was argued that school choice promoted social mobility and increased test scores, especially in the cases of low income students. Similar results have been found in other jurisdictions. The small improvements produced by some school choice policies seem to reflect weaknesses in the ways that choice is implemented, rather than a failure of the basic principle itself.<ref>Whelan, Lessons Learned: How good policies produce better schools (2009). Fiske, Ladd, When Schools Compete (2000)</ref>