Children Left Behind: An Implementation Analysis of Migrant Childrens Education Reform in China

Abstract

In 2001, the Decisions on Basic Education Reform and Development were issued by the Chinese State Council, against a backdrop of increasing rural-to-urban migration. The Decisions and subsequent policies initiated a decade of reform to improve migrant childrens access to urban public schools. This case study examines why a significant proportion of migrant children still receive no public education in cities despite laws and legislations that promise otherwise. Since the policy implementation process in China is rather opaque, this paper complements the analysis of secondary literature with insights from two interviews with local policy implementers. By examining the organizational structure, central-local dynamics, and street-level actors of the migrant education reform, this paper concludes that the migrant education policies suffer from partial implementation because of: (1) an informal organizational structure with little enforcements mechanisms or oversight; (2) misalignment of interest between the central and local government, and (3) gatekeeping mechanisms that street-level bureaucrats use to ration services. This study is important for shedding light on the organizational structure of policy implementation and identifying the reasons for the failure of ambitious policy objectives to deliver the intended outcome in China.