Policy Feedback Effects and Institutional Decline: Theorizing Public Education

• In Event: Whose Voice And How? Exit, Voice, and Loyalty in Education Politics

Abstract

Drawing on the case of school choice, we seek to better specify the relationship between perceived institutional decline and the decision by actors to exit the institution or voice their dissatisfaction with it (Hirshman 1971). Across OECD countries, school choice is on the rise as parents seek and governments permit alternatives to public education; but the movement of students out of public systems has varied significantly across jurisdictions. This variation allows us to explore policy feedback effects comparatively, paying particular attention to variation across three dynamics: the presence or absence of government support for non-public schools; how pre-existing education governance mechanisms channel dissatisfaction towards or away from exit; and the impact of socioeconomic and other demographic variables on parent decision making.

Authors

• James Farney, University of Regina

• Linda A. White, University of Toronto