Choice, vouchers and the consequences for public high schools: lessons from Australia

For over three decades, government subsidies have been a major source of funds for private schools in Australia and private schools now enrol over one third of all students. Analysing administrative and participation data, we find that Australian private schools have used government subsidies to increase the quality of their services (ie. to reduce student: teacher ratios) rather than to reduce their fees. As a consequence, the socio-economic composition of private schools has remained unchanged whilst a higher proportion of public school students now come from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. The Australian experience suggests that weighted voucher schemes are not likely to facilitate access to private schools for low SES students, without significant government policy intervention. *Dr Louise Watson Associate Professor, Faculty of Education University of Canberra, ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA Telephone: + 61 (02) 6201 5357 Email: [email protected] #Dr Chris Ryan Director, Social Policy Evaluation, Analysis and Research Centre, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 Australia. Telephone: +61 (02) 6201 5357 Email: [email protected]