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Education Is Not Well Defined As Well

Decent Essays

According to Labaree (1997) “a public good is one where benefits are enjoyed by all the member of the community, whether or not the actually contributed to the production of this good”. On the other hand, economic literature states that a good can be considered public if it is not excludable and nonrival. The first characteristic means that if an individual consume this good the other people are not excluded from consuming it. The second means that when one person consumes the amount available to other people does not reduce the quantity available for others (Varian, 1992).

It is hard to set education as a public good. Because, the way we discuss education is not well defined as well. Sometimes people discuss education in country level (or as a system), in the school level or in the classroom level. Note that the concept of public good can be different in each case. For instance, in classroom level it seems difficult to accept education as a public good. If a classroom has a limited size, we are excluding people when we decide to put a group in that class. The nonrival attribute does not seem to be true in the classroom level as well. Suppose the classroom has a student that demands teacher all the time, the education available for other students in the classroom can be reduced.

Nonetheless, Labaree discuss education as a system. In this case, the characteristic of a public good fits better. If policy makers decide to provide a new seat in one school, it seems that

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