Why Progressives Should Support School Choice
- Andrew Hanson
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- 4 months ago
The American debate over school choice dates back at least as far back as the 1970s, a decade after Milton Friedman published Capitalism and Freedom, in which he argued for the establishment of school vouchers that families could use to send their children to a public or private school of their choosing. Friedman’s argument gained influence in libertarian circles because of its resemblance to market systems that included competition. Social conservatives liked the idea of using tax revenues toward tuition at parochial schools.
Progressives have mostly rejected the school choice movement because of its potential to undermine public schools as well as exacerbate inequalities and segregation. But progressives have failed to appreciate just how bad the current system has been at achieving the goals they so vehemently defend. Instead of rejecting school choice altogether, they should embrace the beneficial aspects of a choice system alongside a specific set of revisions that address their concerns.
In the U.S., most funding for public schools comes from local property taxes. This system is both uniquely American and uniquely terrible. It has led to greater inequality and segregation and less social mobility than in other industrialized countries. Poor communities have less property tax revenue than affluent communities and, as a result, less funding for schools. Affluent communities can invest in buildings, facilities, and advanced technology that poor communities cannot afford. More importantly, affluent school districts are able to attract better teaching talent by offering higher salaries and less stressful working conditions. As a result, the U.S. education system exacerbates the inequalities that disadvantaged children enter primary school with. Middle- and upper-class families have a way to get their children out of bad schools: They can pick up and move to the suburbs. Since poorer families are less mobile and often cannot afford to move to suburbia, their choices are limited.
Progressives should be up in arms over these injustices. Most have a “system justification” bias — an inclination to defend the status quo as fair and just. They believe in public schools and they feel the need to defend them against conservative attacks. Consider the conservative critique that public schools are “inefficient.” Progressives typically, and erroneously, respond that efficiency is not important. If a system is inefficient, that means there is a free lunch on the table waiting to be eaten.
However, some progressive criticisms of a “free-market” voucher system are strong. Affluent parents could supplement their voucher with extra income to send their children to better schools, worsening inequalities. The system could become more segregated by race, class, and religion. Teaching creationism in the classroom could undermine scientific education. In general, students' exposure to varying ideas and cultures could narrow.
Progressives can maintain these concerns without rejecting school choice altogether. Vouchers could be means-tested, or affluent parents could be restricted from using their own incomes alongside vouchers to pay for tuition. A school that accepts vouchers could be required to accept regulations on its curriculum, such as the teaching of creationism in biology. Most importantly, the government could offer additional financial incentives to schools that achieve a desired level of integration.
I share progressives’ concerns about the risks of a free market in education. But a free market is not a necessary feature of a choice system. We can embrace choice while maintaining our commitment to equal opportunity and integration, secularism, and social justice.
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Should the U.S. Education System Embrace School Choice Reforms?
The Debaters
Andrew Hanson
Economic researcher/blogger with an interest in issues related to education and inequality. Teach For America alum. Studied philosophy as an undergrad; interested in political philosophy and philosoph...
The opponent is
Grayson Cooper
Grayson is a Senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, pursuing a Interdisciplinary Studies major on Educational Entrepreneurship. His interest in education stems from teaching experi...
Most Mic'd Responses
Jon, I agree that education is a community function. I don't understand why allowing students from different neighborhoods to attend the same schools is at odds with this. Perhaps you could write a piece on this? Do you think the higher education system of public and private universities is subject to your criticisms? Daniel, why wouldn't allowing children from poorer communities access to better schools help them? Why isn't it better than the status quo?
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The Discussion
Close All ThreadsReadings —
We could Blue Sky (BS) all the Wouldn't It Be Luverlies of this topic till the cows come home, but the once sacred cow of public education is already in the slaughterhouse, so information about the present reality is critical for anyone who cares about saving it from the killing floor.
I see that I posted a lot of links when we discussed this before on MicCast article, but that was before we had live links working, so I'll save myself some work by going back and picking those up.
As I believe you've stated before in other threads, school choice can help around the margins. As long as people realize that this is not the "Big Fix" that will cure our education system, then I'm fine with it. After all: the Big Fix is to demonize teachers and take away their benefits!
School choice can also serve as a laboratory for experimental policies that are difficult to implement at traditional schools.
For my money, the best chance for better educational outcomes is the continued gentrification of urban areas. Stabilizing the tax base in urban areas helps. So does the reshuffling of struggling income groups out of areas with longstanding problems and into areas where poverty and desperation isn't a longstanding tradition.
3 Replies
Any opportunity to allow a child to attend a successful school with successful teachers would be outstanding. However, I do have reservations? First, the bureaucracy of these vouchers requires parents or even a caring counselor to initiate. From my experience, this is not an easy find. Those most needy tend to lack an adult anchor or someone who can guide them to the "better" school. Second, what happens to all the schools that are not considered "good"? Do we just shut them down? What about over population in the "good" schools? How does the voucher solve this problem?
3 Replies
Anchor Post for Updates on Education —
This is one of those areas where the “Next Generation” appears to be more poorly educated about the history and more poorly informed about the present state of affairs than almost any other area, and that is saying a lot.
So, before the “Next Generation” becomes the “Last Generation”, I will do what I can to bring it up to speed.
8 Replies
Vouchers are simply a strategy for imposing market-think on a segment of the public sphere that cannot be commodified as private property.
Education is a community function. Communities evolve through community activity over historically long periods of time. Communities cannot be commodified as mine and yours and the other guy's.
That difficulty of creation and impossibility of commodification makes communities the very thing that private corporations hate the most.
We are seeing today the consequences of that animosity in every sector of the public sphere, and it really needs to stop.
Now.
13 Replies
"Vouchers could be means-tested, or affluent parents could be restricted from using their own incomes alongside vouchers to pay for tuition."
No, Andrew. By your own words, you are offering a false sop to progressives here. Affluent parents who want their children educated in private schools already pay tuition to put them there. Vouchers really do exacerbate segregation and other problems in private schools. Check out what the Koch boys are trying to do to ruin the Durham, NC, public school system by astroturfing white supremacists onto the school board to advocate an end to bussing and a neighborhood shool system. Durham was a model for excellence in the modern south prior to the Koch interference. You're on the wrong side of history.
13 Replies