ABSTRACT
In 1964, at the start of the period under consideration in this book, the consensus between the two major political parties that education was a proper target for investment by the State, and that much of that investment should properly be directed to the alleviation of social class distinctions, remained firmly in place. By the end of the 1980s a new set of priorities had emerged, with the focus increasingly upon value for money, competition and differentiation between schools and sectors, and on the power of the consumer (usually construed as the parent) to exercise choice in the selection of schooling. How did this come about, and to what extent did it represent a sea-change in the politics of education? Did these newer themes have any long-term pedigree, or were they the product of a new politics which had emerged during the seventies and eighties? These are the questions to be addressed in this chapter.
