Recent administrative reforms in New Zealand and government enthusiasm for choice for and competition in education have not benefited private schools there as might have been expected. The level of aid to private schools, much reduced by the previous government, has not been completely restored to its former level and the government is concerned at the number of private schools seeking to join the state system under legislation which guarantees those schools full funding and the retention of their special character. Costs are clearly a factor, given the government's commitment to limiting government expenditure in general, but the existence of two types of non-government school - private and integrated - and the increasing numbers of 'Christian' schools add to the difficulties of policy-making. The next effect of present arrangements -largely inherited - is that the government is funding some small, costly schools while seeking to close others on the grounds of inefficiency. As well, the public funding of non-government schools enables well-off parents to choose schools, and some schools to choose pupils, but does not increase most parents' options.