Editorial
The financing of education is a perennial topic in modern social life, one that we visit on a regular basis. In this case, it is prompted by the changed government in Britain which has replaced left leaning Labour with a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Despite this being an uneasy mix, there has been a shift to the right, meaning to those who favour the marketisation of education. Insofar as this entails freeing education from state control, exercised through saying what can be taught backed up by being the paymaster, this has overlaps with an associative perspective which does not see education as the remit of the state.
But associative economics does not see education as an economic remit either. Rather, its idea is that cultural life, and specifically education, should unfold out of its own logic, free of both state and economic determination. The role of the state is to facilitate the rights that reflect a free cultural life, while that of the economy is to provide the material resources. It is important to note in this exercise that while the way in which people articulate their thoughts in the absence of such ideas may be vexing to some, the ‘trick’ is to enter into a conversation that allows these ideas to become part of the debate, not in order to become triumphant, but to see if they help our understanding and, indeed, have the possibility of nuancing rather than vanquishing current thinking. An endeavour in this direction is illustrated by the lead item, Freedom and Education, an edited conversation between Arthur Edwards and James Stanfield.
The feature, Beautiful Trees, is a review of a book by James Tooley which advocates a greater place for private sector organisations in the provision of education.
How these developments relate to the idea of education free of state or economic determination, can be judged by the archive piece by Rudolf Steiner, entitled Free Education. A further question to be asked is to what extent do these developments lie with the grain of a free spiritual life, and, if not, is there possibility for a dialogue to that end? This is touched on in the research report in this month’s Friends’ Page on Finance and Education.
Accounting Corner complements the overall theme with its consideration of accounting for initiative.
