For-profit education is good for the poor


Michael Gove has hesitantly accepted the inclusion of for-profit schools in the coalitions’ proposed school-choice reforms – a quasi-voucher scheme under which school funding would follow the pupil. This represents a clear improvement over his party’s previous rejection of the profit motive in education. But the half-heartedness of Gove’s position may still stifle much of the reform’s potential, and this could play into hands of those who reject school choice and parental autonomy outright.

Dr Kristian Niemietz is the IEA's Editorial Director, and Head of Political Economy. Kristian studied Economics at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the Universidad de Salamanca, graduating in 2007 as Diplom-Volkswirt (≈MSc in Economics). During his studies, he interned at the Central Bank of Bolivia (2004), the National Statistics Office of Paraguay (2005), and at the IEA (2006). He also studied Political Economy at King's College London, graduating in 2013 with a PhD. Kristian previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Berlin-based Institute for Free Enterprise (IUF), and taught Economics at King's College London. He is the author of the books "Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies" (2019), "Universal Healthcare Without The NHS" (2016), "Redefining The Poverty Debate" (2012) and "A New Understanding of Poverty" (2011).



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