use their positions actively to advance the interests of their children through publicly supported individual choice systems relative to those who seem less well positioned to take advantage of the new opportunities that are opened. That, in turn, runs the risk of undermining the performance of the national educational system to advance the ideals of equal economic, social, and political opportunity, and upward mobility for all, and particularly those towards the bottom of the system. Cynics worry that this system will not only fail to produce social equity objectives long associated with educational efforts, but may also shift the focus of educational providers on satisfying consumer demand rather than achieving the individual level impacts of education that can achieve desired economic, social, and political conditions in the society. They worry that education will become a form of entertainment to children and a respite to hard-pressed parents rather than a powerful form of individual development as economically resourceful, civic-minded, and politically empowered individuals. Unfortunately, it also seems as though individuals line up on different sides of this question primarily on the basis of the ideological and professional commitments rather than any well developed or tested theory of what could actually work to improve the system level performance of national educational systems. It is that gap – the one between ideology and facts -- that RISE seeks to close.

######## Public and Private Aspects of a National Educational System

The problem, however, is the educational system is neither a bureaucratic technical system, nor a market. And that means that our ideas about how to influence that system to become more productive with respect to the many different goals it seeks to achieve have to depart a bit from these pure forms. To see the problem, let’s quickly review the public, bureaucratic, and private market features of national educational systems.

- • It is a public system in the sense that it is subject to state regulation requiring all children to be educated, and setting standards that must be met by educational suppliers if they want to claim that they are providing the required educational processes and results
- • It is predominantly a publicly financed system sustained with the use of public tax dollars, though there are parts of the sector that are receive funds from philanthropic sources, and from fees paid by those consuming the educational services provided (at a more or less subsidized price).
- • It is also primarily a publicly produced system since most educational suppliers are government agencies, but the system also has within it private nonprofit, and private commercial firms.
- • The different educational suppliers can be supported by financial and material support from all three sources: government schools depend heavily on government tax dollars, but often depend on voluntary contributions and special fees levied on consumers; nonprofit schools depend heavily on voluntary commitments of money and effort, but can also receive tax dollars through government contracts, and charge fees to those they serve; commercial enterprises depend heavily on fees for service, but can also receive government dollars through contracts, and charitable dollars above and beyond the fees provided by their customers.