In 1989 New Zealand embarked on what is arguably the most thorough and dramatic transformation of a compulsory state education system ever undertaken by an industrialized country. Under a plan known as Tomorrow's Schools this island nation of 3.8 million people abolished its national Department of Education and turned control of its nearly 2,700 primary and secondary schools over to locally elected boards of trustees. Virtually overnight, one of the world's most tightly controlled public education systems became one of the most decentralized. Two years later, in 1991, with a new government in power, New Zealand enacted further reforms that introduced full parental choice of schools and encouraged the development of a competitive culture in the state education system. Debate rages in the United States about whether similar reforms would improve the performance of the country's troubled public school system. Judgments about the potential benefits of these ideas, as well as the general relevance of economic models to educational systems, tap into deeply held values, and discussion in the U.S. has been hampered by the lack of practical experience with them. The extended and widespread experiences of New Zealand, whose school system functions much like our own, provide U.S. policy makers with a wide range of appropriate insights and implications to consider as they gauge the merits of bold education reform. When Schools Compete is the first book to provide detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the New Zealand experiment. Combining the perceptive observations of a prominent education journalist and the analytical skills of an academic policy analyst, this book will help supporters and critics of market-based education reforms better anticipate the potential long-term consequences of applying ideas of market competition to the delivery of education.
Edward B. Fiske, an educational consultant and writer, is the author of the annual Fiske Guide to Colleges. He served as education editor of the New York Times from 1974 to 1991. Helen F. Ladd is Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies and professor of economics at Duke University's Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
"Edward B. Fiske and... Helen F. Ladd have put together a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis... (Included as Notable Book of 2000)" -Rebecca Jones, Senior Editor of ASBJ, American School Board Journal, 1/3/2001 |"Their book should be this summer's required reading for every education policy maker in the United States." -Dorothy Shipps, Teachers College, Teachers College Record, 4/3/2001 |"When Schools Compete: a Cautionary Tale (Brookings Institution Press), by Edward Fiske and Helen Ladd, warns that competition doesn't always produce good results for minorities. New Zealand's 10-year experiment with something like a national system of c" -Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, 4/3/2001 |"Parental choice and competition among schools have led to an increase in ethnic polarisation, and a wider gap between poor and rich schools, according to two American education experts." -New Zealand Press Association, Waikato Times (Hamilton) |"[When Schools Compete] is first rate in almost every respect: lucidly written, readily accessible, rigorously argued, systematic in its coverage, empirically well grounded, eminently balanced in its treatment of the relevant issues, and full of fascinatin" -Jonathan Boston, New Zealand Education Review |"Fiske, a long-term former education editor at The New York Times, and Ladd, a professor of economics and public policy at Duke University, lay out admirably the reforms in New Zealand." -Madelyn Holmes, Basic Education |"PARENTAL choice and competition among schools have led to an increase in ethnic polarisation, and a wider gap between poor and rich schools, according to two American education experts. Former New York Times education editor Edward Fiske and Duke Univ" - The Dominion (Wellington) |"When School's Compete: A Cautionary Tale said polarisation was the most negative result of the reforms, which were introduced in 1989 and gave schools autonomy and parents the right to choose their children's schools." -Alexander Miriyana, The Sunday Star-Times (Auckland) |"During their five months in New Zealand in 1998, Ladd and Fiske visited nearly 50 schools, analyzed data from the Ministry of Education and other sources and interviewed teachers, principals, parents, government officials and other policy makers.... Du" -Samantha Peterson, The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC) |"Those pondering the effect of the growing school-choice movement in America should look at New Zealand, [When Schools Compete] says. That country's experience suggests that opening enrollment to all public schools and providing vouchers for private school" -Jay Matthews, The Washington Post |"[Fiske and Ladd] offer a series of yellow lights for Americans and others interested in hot educational issues like school choice and charter schools." -Joe Williams, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel |"It is a rare pleasure to find a book that carefully examines the practices of another country with regard to a policy with which we are still experimenting." -Jennifer L. Hochschild, Harvard University, Education Matters, 7/1/2001 |"This book is a pleasure to read. It effectively combines textured examples with common-sense empirical analysis to provide a relatively balanced description of the evolution and progress of one country's experience with fundamental educational reform. It is a welcome addition to the heated school choice debate." -C.E. Rouse, Princeton University, Economics of Education Review, no. 21, 2002
