Challenges in Austrian educational governance revisited. Re-thinking the basic structures

This paper provides an update and a reflection on an earlier study commissioned by the Ministry of education about the challenges posed to educational governance in Austria. It starts with three contradictory observations, first a considerable gap between high expenditure and weak results in international Assessments, second the prevailing perception in Austrian education policy discourses that despite the high expenditure resources would lack in relation to demands, and third a widespread consensus about serious deficiencies of the governance structure, being too complex and giving schools not enough responsibilities and room for manoeuvre. The paper tries to explain these contradictory issues by taking up the argument of the earlier study, and to deepen the argument by additional illustrations and analyses. A path for improvement is sketched that would need quite far reaching changes in the existing governance structures.