FOREWORD

Few issues are as controversial as education reform.  Strong differences of opinions, for instance, concern the causes of poor literacy records, teenage dropouts, inadequate school preparation for job seekers, the appropriate school leaving age, arguments for and against a national curriculum and what to include in it, the role of religious education, sex education, "political awareness" education, and so on.

To a large extent, the wide range of opinion reflects variations amongst people in the kind of society in which they would like to live.  And although these preferences are not something that can be subjected to scientific analysis, there remains a confident assumption among professional educationists that, with continual perseverance, they will soon produce the "one best system", a system of course, that remains a monopoly within the public sector.

In this stimulating book James Tooley vigorously challenges the above assumption.  Writing at a time of growing support for the introduction of meaningful educational choice for dispersed and heterogeneous family consumers, the author displays a masterly grasp of most of the key aspects of the debate including the economics, politics, philosophy and educational history.  The comprehensive references to the most recent academic and professional literature right down to 1996, will itself be a Godsend for those wishing to be thoroughly informed on current controversies.

Tooley argues that, except for the truly indigent, government financial support for education is neither essential nor desirable.  With regard to the revisionist history of British education he concludes that most critics would now agree that the quantity of schooling prior to its collectivization was substantial but they would strongly disagree about its quality.  After careful consideration, however, he is not convinced by the claims of some historians that there were superior standards in publicly inspected schools prior to 1870, one of the reasons being the biased nature of the inspectors' reports.

His involvement in the historical discussion, however, gives Tooley occasion for developing a major new theme.  Whereas the historians are speaking primarily of nineteenth century schooling the real issue is education, and this occurred in a wide variety of places including formal and informal apprenticeship, communal discussion groups, the availability of newspapers in public houses, coffee houses or reading rooms, the institution of the traveling lecturer, the radical press, the Sunday schools and generally the extended family.  Today we should be similarly aware of the even greater potential for decentralized sources of education, as for instance with the new avenue of networking through the internet with influential people around the world.  James Tooley's emphasis on the dispersed and unplanned nature of the dynamic of new knowledge creation is clearly inspired by the work of Hayek and it leads him to produce, in Chapter V, a brilliant challenge to those who enthusiastically support the idea of a national curriculum.

Tooley's book demands especial attention not only because it ranges over a wide intellectual spectrum but also because it ends with interesting practical policy suggestions.  After applauding recent decentralization reforms such as open-enrolment, per capita funding, and local management of schools, the author pushes further by way of his proposed "Lifelong Individual Fund for Education" (LIFE).  Initially the fund would be equivalent to two years current account spending on schooling -- around £4,000.  At first the LIFE would be available once the student reached the age of 14, while compulsory schooling would finish at that age.  Finance for the operation would come from savings elsewhere in the state education system.  And if the program is successful, as Tooley predicts, his idea is to extend it eventually to earlier age groups.  Meanwhile the proposal is consistent with his emphasis on the need to allow non-school alternatives to flourish where individual demand calls for it.

This brief summary of course does not do justice to the book's carefully crafted details.  Readers will not be disappointed when they reach them, and, in general, they will discover that James Tooley has produced a feast of analysis and a vigorous contribution to the debate in terms of economic plus social theory in addition to interesting practical proposals for political implementation.

Edwin G. West