Abstract:
This thesis is concerned with investigating whether state secondary schools are financially and otherwise better off as a result of the decentralisation of administration and funding created under Tomorrow's Schools ( 1988 ) and if so , whether they could continue to be better off. However , in order to address this issue adequately it will need to be placed in the wider political and social context. The fact is that the future direction of education policy is contested between those who advocate the marketisation , and possibly privatisation , of education ( Lauder , 1991 ) and those who argue for a state funded and provided education system which is not subject to the market.
The directions taken by this debate and the policies which issue from it will have a bearing on the judgements we make about the decentralisation of funding in terms of the advantages and disadvantages that may accrue to schools as a result of this policy. For example , it may well be that in a decentralised non-market system of education schools , in general , do gain through having greater control of their operational grants but that in a market system of education some schools will inevitably experience a decline in their budgets , although nominally they may have greater control over their financial arrangements.
