Rt. Hon. John Redwood and Nick Seaton, Centre for Policy Studies
September 2002
The London-based Centre for Policy Studies published this pair of essays. The first, by MP John Redwood (a former head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit), contends that the chief reason for England's education woes is "the present collectivist and illiberal system," which should be replaced by a universal voucher-style choice system. The second, by Nick Seaton, chairman of the "Campaign for Real Education," seeks to quantify the full costs of government-provided education in England and estimates that the per-pupil figure will soon equal that of private education. Because a large fraction of British private schools are what Americans call "independent schools," historically the private sector's average per-pupil expenditures have exceeded those of the public sector. But Seaton says this is changing fast, implying that government assistance to youngsters to attend private school is on its way to becoming a bargain for taxpayers. A press release describing the essays can be found at http://www.cps.org.uk/redwood.htm. You can order them in one hard-copy volume for ??7.50 (including shipping and handling) at http://www.cps.org.uk/order.htm.
