Author: Jon Lauglo
Abstract
Do private schools receiving public financing subject to strict capping of the fees the schools are allowed to charge, have socio-economic biases in their recruitment of students? The paper examines the question in the light of relevant international research literature and analyses data from national administrative data regarding enrolments in basic education in Norway — a country which has a policy of generous public financing of eligible private schools but at the same time a sharply restrictive policy on eligibility for public financing. In most types of such largely publicly financed private schools, there is some overrepresentation of children whose parents have higher education but no recruitment bias that favours families with higher incomes; and children of immigrants are not underrepresented in this small private education sub-system.