The New Governance of Education: the Conservatives and education 1988‐1997

Abstract

The governance and management of the English education system has been transformed over the past decade in an avalanche of reforms beginning with the Education Reform Act of 1988. Throughout this period, Conservative governments’ policy was driven by a set of assumptions about choice, markets, standards, public management, accountability and the relationship between competitiveness, economic growth and the education system. Their expectations have not always been vindicated by experience.