ABSTRACT
State financing of education is consistent with a high degree of individual or at least local control of the nature and form of education. A system in which parents were issued with vouchers for educational services cashable at institutions of their choice, or payable to private tutors, could still be defined as state provision, although state control would be minimal. Between such a system and a system of centralised direction and inspection lies a whole continuum of possibilities. Which possibility is chosen by a society will depend on the answers tacitly assumed by that society to a number of questions. Is education the business of the state? Or is it essentially a matter for the family? Is the state's responsibility finished when it sees that the family has fulfilled its responsibilities? Or is there an educational function which can be fulfilled only on a public rather than a private basis?
