THE LAISSEZ-FAIRE FINANCE OF EDUCATION.

The article discusses the advantages of laissez-faire financing of education in Great Britain. Despite the rise of Keynesianism to the position of economic orthodoxy and the steadily diminishing significance of private finance in education, there has developed, in recent years, a mounting campaign for the laissez-faire finance of education, The objectives of this campaign were well illustrated in a document drawn up in 1969 by a joint working party of the economic and education committees of the Confederation of British Industry. The financing of education largely by direct charges was advocated, and specific recommendations included standard fees for nursery schools, charging the full economic price for school meals, and re:examining the need for school milk provision. A major role in the campaign for the laissez-faire finance of education has been played by the Institute of Economic Affairs which has published a number of works advocating a considerable reduction in the state's direct involvement in the finance of education. It can, of course, be argued that the objection to the existing distribution of incomes is a separate issue that should be dealt with directly and independently of the method of financing education. An illuminating example of the application of neo-classical economic theory provided by recent discussion of the brain drain. Among the problems which the panacea of laissez-faire finance is supposed to solve is that of student unrest.