Neoliberalism And The New Right Perspective

What is Neoliberalism?

An economic doctrine that has a major influence on educational policy.

What do Neoliberals argue?

That the state should not provide services such as education, health and welfare. Neoliberal ideas have influenced governments since 1979 - whether Conservative, Labour or Coalition.

What is Neoliberalism based on?

The idea that the state must not dictate to individuals how to dispose of their own property, and should not try to regulate a free-market economy. So governments should encourage competition, privatise state-run businesses and deregulate markets.

What do Neoliberals argue the value of education lies in?

How well it enables the country to compete in the global marketplace. They claim that this can only be achieved if schools become more like businesses, empowering parents and pupils as consumers and using competition schools to drive up standards.

What is the New Right?

A conservative political view that incorporates neoliberal economic ideas.

What is a central principle of New Right thinking?

The belief that the state cannot meet people’s needs and that people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market. For this reason, they favour the marketisation of educaton.

What perspective does the New Right share some similarities with?

Functionalism.

What are the similarities between The New Right and Functionalist views?

• Both believe that some people are naturally more talented than others.

• Both favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open competition, and one that serves the needs of the economy by preparing young people for work.

• Both believe that education should socialise pupils into shared values, such as competition, and still instil a sense of national identity.

What is a key difference with Functionalism?

The New Right do not believe that the current education system is achieving these goals. The reason for its failure, in their view is that it is run by the state.

What does the New Right argue about the approach that state education systems take?

A ‘one-size-fits-all‘ approach, imposing uniformity and disregarding local needs. The loyal consumers who use the schools - pupils, parents and employers - have no say. State education systems are therefore unresponsive and inefficient. Schools that waste money or get poor results are not answerable to their consumers. This means lower standards of achievement for pupils, a less qualified workforce and a less prosperous economy.

What is the New Right’s solution to the problems caused by the ‘one-size-fits-all‘ approach?

Creating an ‘education market‘. They believe that competition between schools and empowering consumers will bring greater diversity, choice and efficiency yo schools and increase schools’ ability to meet the needs of pupils, parent’s and employers.

What do Chubb and Moe (1990) argue?

That state-run education in the US has failed because:

• It has not created equal opportunity and has failed the needs of disadvantaged groups.

• It is inefficient because it fails to produce pupils with the kills needed by the economy.

• Private schools deliver higher quality education because unlike state schools, they answerable to paying consumers - parents.

What do Chubb and Moe base their arguments on?

A comparison of the achievements of 60,000 pupils from low-income families in 1,015 state and private high schools, together with the findings of a parent survey and case studies of ‘failing‘ schools apparently being ‘turned around‘. Their evidence shows that pupils from low-income families consistently do 5% better in private than in state schools.

Based on their findings, wat do Chubb and Moe call for?

The introduction of a market system in state education that would put control in the hands of the consumers (parents and local communities). They argue that this would allow consumers to shape schools to meet their own needs and would improve quality and efficiency.

What do Chubb and Moe propose, in order to introduce a market into state education?

A system in which each family would be given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice. This would force schools to become more responsive to parent’s wishes, since the vouchers would be the school’s main source of income. Like private businesses, schools would have to compete to attract ‘customers‘ by improving their ‘product‘.

Does the New Right see no role for the government?

While they stress the importance of market forces in education, this does not mean they see no role at all for the state.

According to the New Right view, what are the two important roles for the state?

• The state imposes a framework on schools within which they have to compete. For example by publishing Ofsted inspection reports and league tables of schools exam results, the state gives parents information with which to make a more informed choice between schools.

• The state ensures that schools transmit a shared culture. By imposing a single National Curriculum, it seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage.

What do the New Right believe education should affirm?

The national identity. For example, the curriculum should emphasise Britain’s private role in world history and teach British literature, and there should be a Christian act of worship in school each day because Christianity is Britain’s main religion. The aim is to integrate pupils into a single set of traditions and values. For this reason, the New Right also oppose multicultural education that reflects cultures of the different minority groups in Britain.

What do Gerwirtz and Ball both argue?

That competition between schools benefits the middle class who can use their cultural and economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools.

What do critics argue?

That the real cause of low educational standards is not state control but social inequality and inadequate funding of state schools.

What is there a contradiction between?

The New Right’s support for parental choice on one hand and the state imposing a compulsory national curriculum on all its schools on the other.

Wha do Marxists argue?

That education does not impose a shared national culture, but imposes the culture of a dominant minority ruling class and devalues the culture of the working class and ethnic minorities.