Restructuring Education

American education is undergoing rapid change. Concern over poor student performance, the ability and motivation of teachers, and the inefficiency of school bureaucracy have led to numerous recommendations for changing the structure of American education. These vary from small changes in the current structure to wholesale privatization of public schools. The contributions in this book discuss a wide range of proposals, including greater school choice, charter schools, promoting contact with the business community, public-private partnerships, and more. Several chapters assess the current research on choice and restructuring. Overall the consensus is that proposed reforms have a good chance of yielding significant benefits.

SIMON HAKIM is Professor of Economics and Codirector of the Privatization Research Center of Temple University. He has published over a hundred articles and seven books, including Privatizing Transportation Systems (Praeger, 1996) and Privatizing Correctional Institutions (1993).

DANIEL J. RYAN is Assistant Professor of Economics at Temple University. He has been with the Economics Department at Temple since 1990, including three years at the Japan campus in Tokyo. He is the editor of Privatization and Competition in Telecommunications: International Developments (Praeger, 1997) and is currently doing research on business cycles and productivity growth.

JUDITH C. STULL is Associate Professor of Sociology at LaSalle University and Senior Research Associate at the Mid-Atlantic Laboratory for Student Success at Temple University Center in Human Development and Education. She has published extensively in sociology, economics, and education journals and is the author of Software and Sociology, a volume using computers to teach sociology.