ABSTRACT
In 1980, Chile became one of the first countries in the world to implement a nationwide school choice system for primary and secondary education. Research has shown that the nationwide school choice system led to large gaps in educational opportunity among the rich and the poor. With the introduction of the Preferential School Subsidy, or SEP, in 2008, Chile began gradually transforming its education system to address this inequality in educational opportunity. Then, responding to widespread social demands for more fundamental changes, the government embarked on a series of law reforms to strengthen the role of the State in regulating education quality and equity. This chapter analyzes the main educational reforms promoted in Chile in the last four decades, with a special focus on the paradigm changes promoted to improve quality, increase inclusion and reduce educational inequality. We seek to better understand Chile’s radical shift from an initial policy-paradigm characterized by free education markets, where competition among schools was thought to be the engine of quality improvement, to a more egalitarian perspective with a stronger role of the public sector and specific regulations to transform the education system to foster whole-child development.
