我国农村民办教育发展的政治逻辑——基于北方某县的调查

Political Logics of Private Education in Rural China: Evidence from a Field Study in a Northern County in China

农村县政府对于公立教育和民办教育是不偏不倚还是持重此轻彼的态度?本文通过对我国北方某县的实地调查，发现体制性因素使县政府总体上偏向公立教育发展，但是体制性限制所留下的\＂缝隙＂恰好成为民办教育发展的契机。当民办教育处于萌芽阶段，其发展水平不影响政府的政绩，政府对民办教育采取了放任自流的政策;当民办教育通过自发形式发展到一定水平，特别是能够有利于实现政府制定的教育目标、提升政府政绩表现时，政府会对其办学行为进行鼓励和支持。该个案调研和经济学研究理论启发我们，可以将竞争作为分析我国农村教育问题的一个新视角。

Does local government hold a discriminatory or nondiscriminatory policy toward public and private education in China? Based on field work in a northern county in China， this paper finds that institutional arrangement is generally favorable for public education， but public education also has limitations in providing education for students whose parents emigrate to urban areas， in improving students performance in entrance examination to high schools and colleges， and in establishing performance assessment system and incentive salary package for teachers etc. This limitation in public sphere constitutes a niche for private education development. When private education appears at outset， the county government takes laissez-faire attitude to the private sector. But when private education becomes mature and can contribute to political performance of the county government， the county government changes its policy posture towards a more favorable one. Consequently， the double-track of qualityoriented education and examination-oriented education coexists in this county. Under the specific institutional arrangement and circumstances， public schools are shaped to meet quality-oriented objective， and private schools are shaped to meet examination-oriented objective. This case study and economics theory instruct us that competition can serve as a new perspective for studying China's rural education.