ABSTRACT
"Clientelism" becomes a distinctive theme that develops the basic notion that schools should be responsive to the needs of their clients. The development of programmatic social services in the school and proposals for extensive choice plans indicate that clientelism is becoming a distinctive theme in American public education. There are several things that make clientelism a distinctive theme in public education. It implies a different and broader notion of the relationships between schools and students and their families as clients or customers. Educational institutions would then compete for students just as other firms would in a market. Although vouchers are the most radical option for choice, most current options for choice occur within the public sector. The appeal of choice as a strategy for educational reform steadily gained momentum in the 1980s. Both welfare and choice proposals for the schools represent a fuller extension of the logic of individualism in defining educational aims.
