抄録
Delegation of power from the central government to local governments or each public compulsory school is now proceeding. The Ministry of Education, therewith, has emphasized "participation" of residents and parents in community. In this article, such a situation is called educational reform with decentralization. Educational reform is interesting because an austere fiscal policy is included in this decentralization and residents participation included in education reform makes an especially powerful impact on the school. From the financial perspective, this reform may benefit from allocating a limited educational budget efficiently thorough participation of residents and parents in public schools. On the other hand, residents and parents may be used as a cheap manpower to compensate for the lack of educational resources. From a political perspective, this reform may be a good opportunity to regenerate a social network in the community and empower residents, parents and children. On the other hand, this reform may stir up conflicts between residents. In this article, methods of residents and parent's cooperative management of a public school and children's education which ensure the diversity of residential and parental membership in "participation" are examined. First, in education reform with decentralization, which emphasizes the character of parents and inhabitants as "cooperative managers," the features of recent public schools which improve the adaptability to "club goods" as set up by James Buchanan is established. Therewith, it is pointed out that the limit of the "club goods" concept is in the assumption of "homogeneous membership." In theories of social science, discussion of the assumption of "homogeneous membership" is maturing. Putnam, who insists that "participation of parents and community to school improvement" is important for education in public schools and children, emphasizes the importance of "active membership." On the other hand Selle and Stromsnes criticize Putnam because a "passive member" is important to keep political pluralism as a basis of democracy. Such discussion about "membership" is important to enable us to consider how to treat various members in collective decision-making about the cooperative management of public schools and children's education. Second, quantitative feature of "active members" and "passive members" of public elementary school parents, differences of expectation level in schools between these two membership groups and factors that influence membership are grasped. As a result of this analysis, it is clear that 19.2% of parents are "active members" (205 parents) and that 25.4% are "passive members" (270 parents). Moreover, it turns out that the "passive members" have a high concern with public schools and children's education, almost at the same level as "active members." Thirdly, the method of cooperative management of public schools and in education in terms of various memberships is considered, including treatment of "passive members."
