Vouchers in Holland Have Led to Control of Private Schools

Washington--At a time when interest in government support of private schools is high, the experiences of countries with large amounts of this type of support--such as the Netherlands, Australia, and Canada--are of particular interest to education researchers.

Recently, a group of researchers and educators assembled here at the National Institute of Education (nie) to hear Piet J. Gathier, the director general for secondary education in the Netherlands, describe that country's system of public financing of private schools.

In the Netherlands, 70 percent of all the schools are private. Until 1917, the cost of founding and running a school had to be borne entirely by parents, Mr. Gathier said, but that year the Dutch Constitution of 1848 was amended "to place state and private schools financially on an equal footing," a...