教育券能否改进学校效率的分析

教育券提升学校效率的前提是学校间能形成竞争,而学校间竞争形成则需要具备相应的条件。在教育实践中,学校竞争所需的一系列条件如学校的可选择性、教育发展的均衡性、服务的异质性、信息的可获性、完善的退出机制等要素并不完全具备。且上述要件作为一种必要条件,得到满足也并不意味着教育效率的必然提高。教育券诱发的过度竞争、精英化和成本失控反而会导致教育效率的降低。

An Analysis on Educational Vouchers as A Tool for Improving School Efficiency

The operation principle of education vouchers is to develop favorable competition among schools with the purpose to enhance efficiency of education. Education vouchers require the following conditions to promote competition: a certain number of schools are able to provide educational services; the education level developed should reach a certain balance and the education service should have certain heterogeneity; there is perfect market entry and exit mechanism; there is comparatively sufficient information available in the education market. The educational voucher policy can improve efficiency because of the pressures from the competition, however, the competition can not always be effective, unless the competition is of a modest one. The failure in the competition, the number of elites rising and the cost growing in consequence of the competition of education vouchers may possibly destroy efficiency.