What America Can Learn from School Choice in Other Countries.What America Can Learn from School Choice in Other Countries. David Salisbury and James Tooley, ed. (Cato Institute "Cato" redirects here. For Cato, see Cato. The Institute's stated mission is "to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace" by striving "to achieve .) Only a little, one might conclude, after reflecting on the essays in this collection. Although James Tooley reveals a lively private education sector in the most unlikely of places (see also Tooley's story "Underground Education," p. 22, this issue), school choice is as uneven and limited in other parts of the world as it is in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . The disputation over Chile's voucher experiment is vigorous, but even there the constraints on the education marketplace are substantial. And New Zealand's choice system is so narrowly constrained con·strain tr.v. con·strained, con·strain·ing, con·strains 1. To compel by physical, moral, or circumstantial force; oblige: felt constrained to object. See Synonyms at force. 2. to government-run operations that the innovation would be totally ignored had folks there not had the same political and linguistic ancestry an·ces·try n. pl. an·ces·tries 1. Ancestral descent or lineage. 2. Ancestors considered as a group. [Middle English auncestrie, alteration (influenced by as those populating the United States. Still, even a modicum mod·i·cum n. pl. mod·i·cums or mod·i·ca A small, moderate, or token amount: "England still expects a modicum of eccentricity in its artists" Ian Jack. of school choice and competition can boost student test scores, especially when combined with a comprehensive examination system for high-school graduates, says Ludger Woessmann, whose systematic, sophisticated analyses of international test-score data best summarize what can be learned from abroad. By itself, this lay-friendly summary of Woessmann's more technical studies makes the book worth the price. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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