ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the debate on privatizing education by assessing two working voucher plans in Latin America. One is in Chile, the other in Colombia. In both countries, the objectives of the voucher plans were to increase educational access and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of schooling. Since these are precisely the arguments made for privatizing education in other countries, it is important to assess the available empirical evidence. At the time of the military coup d'etat in 1973, Chile's education system was one of the most developed in Latin America. In 1980 the military government initiated a sweeping series of educational reforms. It began by transferring responsibility for public school management from the Ministry of Education to local municipalities. The voucher program in Colombia was initiated in the fall of 1991 with objectives somewhat different compared to Chile's plan. The Colombian plan was directed at expanding secondary education by taking advantage of underutilized private school infrastructure.
