過去十餘年來，許多國家的教育政策出現以「消費者」為主的傾向。自由競爭被視為提升教育品質的利器，市場化成為教育改革的主要策略。然而，教育之目的、本質以及品質衡量的依據與一般經濟市場不同；將二者類比，產生了與市場假設與預期不符的問題，尤其是對教育機會均等的損傷。 市場假設雖不宜全盤套用於教育上，但是家長與學生卻應有權利選擇自己所認為有價值的教育內涵。於是自由與均等成為教育政策上競爭的價值。政府若放任學校自由競爭，則不利於低階層家長與學生；但若為求機會均等而統一全國教育內容，又不利於學校的專業發展及人民的自由意願。慮及自由與均等的價值，在課程政策上，國家宜訂定一套學力指標作為全國課程架構，並輔以課程評鑑措施，以確保所有學校具有基本水平以上的教育內容。在此架構下，學校仍有自主發展的空間，而人民不致因選擇而導致所獲得的教育品質懸殊。

　　　　　Recent years, the consumer-based tendency emerges in the educational policies of western countries. Marketization is taken for the main strategy to reform education system. Nevertheless, education is different from the economic market in aims, nature and the standard to recognize excellence. There will be some problems in the analogy between education and economic market, especially the damage to the equality of educational opportunity. However, the choice of education is on people’s rights. The requirement for the equality of educational opportunity should not be the reason to unify schools educational content. For the balance of equality and freedom, a set of achievement indicators as national curriculum framework accompany with curriculum evaluation is suitable. In the framework, there is the room for school-based curriculum development, also the equitable opportunity for students to acquire better education.