Government-provided services are caught in the jaws of a "cost-tax vice". On the cost side, the long-term trend of rising relative prices of services, including education, seems set to continue. The other jaw of the vice is the high efficiency cost of raising additional taxes. Recent research making the case for public provision of…

As the secondary school has become an agent of mass education, it has been beset by complex problems, particularly in the identification of its educational role and its purposes as a social institution. Key features of the identity crisis in Australian secondary schools are described. (MLW)