Socio-economic Segregation in the Argentine Education System: School choice without vouchers

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to review the Argentine case regarding school choice in view of the conclusions of recent research on socio-economic segregation in the educational system. In this context, the study of the Argentine educational system becomes a rather interesting one since Argentina has neither demand subsidy programs, nor voucher systems. On the contrary, the continuous actions by the State in matters of supply-oriented nancing rule out any thoughts of a generalized existence of either educational markets or quasi-markets. Nevertheless, the strong regulating mechanisms imposed by the State seem to breed deregulated areas that promote actions by sectors with a greater economic or political capacity to satisfy their preferences in terms of their children's education.

The growth of private education in Argentina: evidence and explanations

“…During the 1990s, economic and education policies were characterised as neoliberal, while those that were the result of the government elected in 2003 positioned themselves as strong opponents to the neoliberalism of the previous decade, proclaiming a different ideological matrix and even deactivating the legal mechanisms that supported the so-called neoliberal policy. For that reason, analysis of the evolution of the principal indicators related to privatisation in education for these last two decades should form a reasonable picture to evaluate the studies that have just been summarised, revealing that in Latin America there is an intricate relationship between neoliberalism and private education or, maybe, to continue confirming other theoretical types of positioning that warn us that, at least in the case of Argentina, the privatisation tendency started much earlier than the neoliberal boom (Narodowski and Andrada 2001a;Narodowski 2002aNarodowski , 2002b and that its growing relevance is based more on the typical growing dynamics of the education system than on the effect of conjunctural public policies or the ideological proclamations of a specific moment in time (Narodowski 2008a).…”

Between open and internal privatization: the Argentine educational system from 1940 through 2010

“…Parents are free to send their children to any private school -with or without State funding-regardless of their residence or chosen school location. However, this freedom is conditioned by each family's economic capacity to afford schools fees, which can vary significantly from low fee to elite private schools, totally or partially subsidized, or non subsidized at all (Narodowski, 2002;Narodowski, Moschetti & Gottau, 2016).…”

“…The de-regulation of the private sector and the hyper-regulation of the State sector (Narodowski, 2002) have led to the configuration of a disintegrated system: an 'independent' private subsystem coupled with a 'State' public subsystem. As regards the first one, de-regulation applies to the private subsector as a whole, regardless of the State subsidies.…”

Discourses and Policies on Educational Quality in Argentina, 1990–2010

“…[2] The growth of private schools seemed to be due to their flexibility in responding to the demands of families (Narodowski, 2002), but increasingly to the prevailing view that they offered an education of higher quality than public schools.…”