何以國家介入教育領域？學界的討論分散在各個學門之中，彼此呈現一種各自表述的景象。然而，現代教育與社會、文化、經濟及政治較之過去益形密切，單一面向的思維模式不足以綜覽教育全貌。本文從批判理論的角度，嘗試整理教育社會學與教育經濟學有關「國家」與「教育」議題，歸納出――「教育之社會化與選擇功能」、「教育再製社會不公」、「教育累積勞動市場生產力」、「教育市場機能發揮經濟效率」與「教育之福利經濟性質」等五個觀點，進而指出，前者僅從社會的角度探討教育，後者雖直指國家與教育卻未能正視其關係，兩學門之理論皆有其限制且忽略國家在近代教育所扮演的重要角色。為了避免相關理論陷落於某些既定規範的論述形式，乃進一步將其放置在我國幼兒教育現場進行檢證，根據上述觀點假定五個命題，以歸結出幼兒教育國家介入之合理基礎，且依循此理論背景與回顧相關文獻來回溯幼兒教育國家介入之軌跡。研究發現，過去幼兒教育國家介入不足，錯失導正其健全發展的良機，而欲導之於常軌，「適度」之國家介入是必要的。最後，從現階段幼兒教育國家介入之「普及幼稚教育」、「幼托整合」與「幼兒教育券」等三個方案檢討其對理論實踐的程度發現，教育政策之規劃缺乏對理論的反省，對於解決盤根錯節的幼兒教育陳痾的成效是有限的。幼兒教育國家介入，與其說是為了實踐理論的訴求，不如說是為了選票的考量。 There have been many explanations toward the reason why state intervenes education but no consensus answers have been raised yet. Further, as we know, the relationship among education, society, economy, and policy are much closer than before. We must consider every point of view to catch the whole educational respects. This research objective is therefore to reorganize the issues raised by educational sociologists and educational economists via the perspectives of critical theory. I propose five arguments to reach the whole picture. First of all, education has the function of socialization and selection. Secondly, education reproduces the inequity ofsociety. Thirdly, education accumulates the productivity of labor market. Fourthly, educational market mechanism produces economic efficiency. And fifthly, education owns the character of welfare economy. Given the discussions in the text, I notice the limitations of classical theories that ignore the fact that the state plays an important role in recent education. From this point of view, I review the relative theories and then check the tracks of state intervention. I conclude that the state intervention wasn’t enough so that lost the good chance to correct the development of preschool education. Also, I argue that the “appropriate” state intervention is suitable by using three state intervention programs in preschool education at the present time. Additionally, I find that the education policy lacks the introspection to the theories. So I believe that the state intervention in the preschool education may just be set for votes but it will be not able to solve problems of preschool education.
