@article{6c45bd632caf41d48fff14ad13a5c899,
title = "School choice in Europe",
abstract = "In the introduction to the special issue on school choice in Europe, we explain the purpose of this special issue and summariize the individual articles, stressing the lessons learned from European experience.",
keywords = "European education policy, Parental choice, Religious education, School choice, School choice in Europe",
author = "Tommaso Agasisti and Melo, \{Rodrigo Queiroz e\} and Robert Maranto",
note = "Funding Information: As Glenn reminds us in his lead essay in this special issue, Catholics in Europe have a very different and far more powerful history. As pointed out by prior works in this journal, for this reason, to promote social peace and avoid culture wars, in social democratic Belgium (Maranto \& van Raemdonck, ) and the Netherlands (de Groop, ) governments fund and regulate private schools, but parents can choose among a rich array of options, often provided by a range of religious congregations. From the viewpoint of several observers, this feature seems to enhance rather than undermine national unity by reducing conflict (works in Maranto \& Shakeel, ). Ireland also offers a rich ecosystem of publicly funded, often faith-based schooling options, as many readers found in early 2022 at the annual International School Choice and Reform Conference. More recently, as prior works in this journal pointed out, Sweden (Mohme, ), Spain (Verger, Fontdevila, \& Zancajo, ), the U.K. (Verger et al., ), and parts of Italy (Agasisti, Barbieri, \& Murtinu, ) have begun to finance (and typically regulate) private schooling to a certain extent. In short, social democratic Europe to a far greater degree than “free market” America offers flexible education markets. Of the 27 countries belonging to the European Union, 16 have state funded privately operated schools. Taken together, in these 16 countries 20\% of k-12 students are in private schools funded by the government (Melo, ). OIDEL () reports that 81\% of European countries provide some funding to non-government schools, with 10\% subsidizing teacher salaries, 33\% providing operating costs, and 17\% covering nearly all costs (Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Malta, Denmark, the U.K., Finland, and Slovakia). It is important to note that in many European countries, government funds schools that have a distinctive religious character and mission. Most Catholic schools in Ireland and France are funded by the state. For an interesting example of government funding of faith schools in Portugal see Melo (). Further, official European statistics (Eurostat, ) can sometimes confuse rather than enlighten. In countries, including Sweden and the Netherlands, well over 90\% of the schools are officially “public”; yet this designation includes large numbers of self-governing publicly funded schools associated with religious denominations – schools which in the U.S. would be considered private. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 Taylor \& Francis.",
year = "2023",
month = feb,
day = "27",
doi = "10.1080/15582159.2023.2169808",
language = "English",
volume = "17",
pages = "1--9",
journal = "Journal of School Choice",
issn = "1558-2159",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "1",
}