Social class dimensions in the selection of private schools: a cross-national analysis using PISA

One of the most hotly disputed debates in educational policy in the last twenty years has undoubtedly been the one centred on parental choice. Both its promoters and its critics have gone to great length to argue their point. In the anglo- saxon context, school choice has been pushed onto the reform agenda by the conservative administrations in the united kingdom and the united states. It represented the educational sector equivalent of similar reforms aimed at introducing market-like mechanisms in the public sector, in an attempt to improve quality and reduce costs. By giving parents freedom to enrol their children at a school other than the designated one in their catchment area, supporters argued, schools would be forced to compete for students. In turn, competition would incentivize schools to be more responsive to parental demand and to improve their service or risk being closed (chubb and moe 1990; hoxby 2002).