Topic: Over the past few years there has been ongoing debate in Australia about public funding for (primary and secondary) school students.

Some commentators have argued that better education outcomes could be achieved with a voucher system. How might a voucher system for schools work? Why might they achieve better outcomes than those achieved with current or proposed arrangements for school funding in Australia? Is there any evidence that a voucher system is an effective and efficient way for governments to achieve policy objectives with respect to education? In your answer you should clearly define what is meant by a voucher system and how it may operate. Your discussion should represent a critical discussion of a voucher system using economic principles canvassed in Public Finance. You should discuss the relevant theory and empirical analysis that justifies claims that you make. Starter references: Ladd, H.F. (2002), ‘School Vouchers: A Critical View', Journal of Economic Perspectives 16(4), pp. 3-24. Papers are to be a maximum length of 1500 words. This should represent your starting point for this essay/ term paper. That is, it is not the only paper that you read but rather gives you some background information that can inform you in your subsequent research. Essays that do not go beyond this paper and the arguments contained in it will receive low grades. Any academic work such as a term paper should include a bibliography and references throughout the text indicating which sources have been drawn upon in your discussion. Grading outlines: The grade provided to students has been done on the following basis. Grades were allocated for three components of the paper:

1. Answering the question - that is, have you provided a logical answer to the question posed? This required a coherent and logical argument which addressed the key issues in the question that you answered. These were both theoretical issues and empirical issues, and establishing a link between the two was important. It is important to stress also that where you made assertions, this required they were backed up or substantiated with appropriate evidence (such as academic journals, books and other reputable sources). A series of unsubstantiated assertions does not constitute a strong argument. The weighting for this component of the paper was 10/ 25.

2. Evidence of research - What I wanted here was evidence that you had undertaken relevant research that was subsequently incorporated into your essay. Again, it was important that you did some independent research (you went beyond Cooter and Ulen and the starter references that I provided), searching for relevant journal articles, books, monographs, academic and policy papers which provided evidence to support the assertions you made in the answer that you provided. The weighting for this component of the paper was 10/ 25. Some additional comments about research are provided below.

3. Referencing and style - this required you to comprehensively provide references throughout the paper. References needed to be consistent and complete. Moreover, it required you to present a well structured (aesthetically and logically) paper. Note that I have provided a Harvard Referencing guide that can be used when writing up the term paper.