Educational Archetypes: The Voucher System
Within developing nations, there exist two archetypes for educational systems: public and private. Under a system of public education, the government builds schools, hires teachers, and pays all (or at least a majority) of the costs of education. This system can work well in situations where a nation is starting from scratch. However, public education in developing nations often results in poor-caliber institutions. All schools are under the same umbrella organization, and school employees are paid the same amount regardless of how they perform. Finally, there is no mechanism for addressing the needs and concerns of individual families.
The other extreme is private education. In a system of private education, schools are businesses, and parents pay to enroll their children. Schools therefore have an incentive to please their clients, and they compete with one another on quality. A major shortcoming of private education is that it serves only the families who can afford to pay tuition. And, in situations where both public and private education exist, private education can actually drive down the calibur of public schools because the most affluent (and politically influential) members of society no longer have a vested interest in having a strong public schooling system.
One promising hybridization of public and private education is the voucher system. Under this system, both public and private schools exist, and the government provides families with "vouchers" that they can use as payment for their children's education. Under this system, parents choose the school that their children attend, but the government pays the bill. The benefits of such a system are that schools have to compete on quality, but poorer families can still afford to send their children to school.
The major criticism of the voucher system is that, while it improves the quality of schooling for those who would be attending schools anyway, it does little to enroll those who would not otherwise be receiving an education. In particular, girls, minorities, and children of families that rely on their children's contributions to the family income often do not send their children to school, even where vouchers are present.
Mexico has come up with an interesting solution to this problem. Rather than subsidizing children's education, Mexico is experimenting with providing cash-rewards to families for sending their youngest generations to school.