The national management of public and Catholic schools in France: moving from a loosely coupled towards an integrated system?

In this article, we analyse changes in the contemporary management of private Catholic schools under State contract in France since the 1980s. Writing from a ‘policy sociology’ perspective, we use data from previous studies on policy and on public and private schools as well as from an ongoing research project comparing policies of accountability in France and in Quebec. After presenting an outline of the constitutional, legal and institutional context in which public and religious schools operate, we show that the introduction of new public management approaches and instruments in the field of education has not exerted a significant influence either on the public management of State-controlled private schools or on the coupling between the public and the private sector. The management of Catholic schools is still mainly based, on the one hand, on regulation through inputs and limited intervention by public authorities and, on the other hand, on a complex system of internal moral controls by the private authorities themselves. However, although the management of public and private schools remains loosely coupled, some moves towards a closer interaction between the authorities in charge of both systems have taken place in the last decade.