Marketisation

• Marketisation


  Introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition into areas run by the state, creating an 'education market'
• Marketisation policies


  • League tables
  • Open enrolment
  • Formula funding
  • Opting out of LEA control
  • Free schools
  • Academies
  • Business sponsorship
• Parentocracy


  Supporters claim these policies give parents greater choice and raise standards
• League tables


  • Schools with good results can 'cream-skim' the best (mainly middle-class) pupils
  • Less successful schools end up with less able pupils (sit-shifting)
• Funding formula


  Schools are funded on how many pupils they recruit, so good schools get more money, can improve staffing facilities and attract more pupils
• Types of parental choosers

  • Privileged-skilled choosers with economic and cultural capital
  • Disconnected-local choosers who lack capital and have to settle for the nearest school
  • Semi-skilled choosers frustrated by their inability to get the school they wanted
• Myth of parentocracy


  Marketisation legitimates inequality by making it look as if all parents are equally free to choose a good school
• New Labour policies, 1997-2010


  • City academies
  • Education Action Zones
  • Aim Higher programmes in disadvantaged areas
  • Education Maintenance Allowances for poorer 16-18 year olds
  • Increased spending on state education
• New Labour's policies are contradictory, e.g. EMAs help poorer pupils stay on post-16, but they now have to pay university tuition fees
• New Labour has left the private education system untouched
• 'Choice' and 'diversity' are just nice ways of saying 'inequality' - the education market ensures working-class pupils remain disadvantaged
• More education spending and a focus on a 'learning society' have been genuine achievements of New Labour
• Evidence that academies have raised standards is mixed - some show improved results, others don't
• Marketisation


  Introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into a state-run area
• This creates an education market-reduces state control of education, increasing competition between schools and parental choice
• Education Reform Act made marketisation central to education policy


  1988
• Coalition government took marketisation further with academies and free schools


  2010
• New Right & Neoliberals

  • Favour marketised education as schools have to compete to attract parents, and schools will give in to parents needs to enrol more students
• Reproduction of Inequality


  Critics say marketisation has increased inequalities
• Ball (1994) - market policies like exam league tables/formula funding reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools
• League tables


  Publishing school results ensure those with good results become in demand, and parents will be more attracted to them
• League tables


  • Encourage cream-skimming (good schools can be selective and pick high-achieving MC pupils) and sit-shifting (good schools avoid taking less able pupils who would damage their league table position)
• Schools with bad league positions

  • Wouldn't be able to be selective, and therefore take less able WC pupils, who damage their position and make the school unattractive to MC parents
• Formula funding


  Where school's funding depends on how many pupils they attract. Popular schools get more funding - better resources, teachers that attract students the school can select to ensure their table position is good. Unpopular schools get less funding - poorer resources, teachers, etc that means they have to take all pupils and have their table position suffer
• Myth of parentocracy


  Marketisation legitimises inequality as well as making it by concealing its true cause and justifying its existence
• Ball - marketisation gives the myth of parentocracy - it looks like all parents have the choice in selecting schools
• Gewirtz - shows this isn't true and parents' choice is affected by class, with the MC benefitting most (reproduces class inequality in education)
• Parentocracy


  Marketised education encourages parentocracy, which gives them more choice and raises educational standards/school diversity
• Policies that promote marketisation

  • Publishing league tables and Ofsted reports helps parents choose the right school
  • Business sponsorship of schools
  • Open enrolment-success for schools can recruit more pupils
  • Specialist schools-to widen parental choice
  • Formula funding-same funding for every pupil
  • Academies-where schools opt out of local authority control
  • Schools competing to attract pupils
  • Introducing tuition fees for higher education
  • Allowing parents/other to make free schools
• New Labour from 1997-2010 made policies aiming to reduce educational inequality
• Policies to reduce inequality

  • Education Action Zones-provided more resources to deprived areas
  • Aim Higher programme-raised aspirations of groups who aren't represented in higher education
  • Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) payments to low-income students to encourage Qualification after 16
  • Increased funding for state education
• Benn (2012) - This is a New Labour Paradox, choosing marketisation even though it causes inequality, and then making more policies to tackle inequality e.g. EMA was introduced alongside increased tuition fees
• Gewirtz (1995): parental choice


  Marketisation benefits the MC by increasing parental choice they can use their economic and cultural capital to choose good schools
• Types of parents


  • Privileged skilled choosers: MC parents. Use cultural capital to choose the best schools, network with school admissions, use economic capital to move into catchment area, afford travel to the best schools, etc.
  • Disconnected local choosers: WC parents with restricted choice as they have no economic/cultural capital. Less knowledgeable about choice, admissions & playing the system. Closest schools may be the best option due to travel cost restrictions
  • Semi-skilled chasers: WC parents with ambitions for their children (unlike local choosers). Lack economic/cultural capital and understanding of the market and were frustrated that they couldn't send their child to the best school due to this