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12/30/2002 02:47:00 PM | Brad Plumer re: School Choice aaaaugh! my computer has crashed three times while replying... so I’ll give the short version. Karsten, you wrote: “But fundamentally speaking, our federal government guarantees equal opportunity to all its citizens (with education as its primary mechanism).” I see a couple things wrong with this. 1) Fundamentally speaking the federal government has nothing to do with education, unless I‘m mistaken. There is a clear constitutional mandate for defense spending, etc., but none for educational spending. 2) I don’t understand what you mean by “equal opportunity.” Right now, not everyone has the opportunity to attend (or even apply to) Exeter and Groton. Should these schools be eliminated or nationalized? Or do you mean equal opportunity to attend some school with minimum (sometimes very minimum) standards? In which case, I don’t see how privatizing education would get rid of this opportunity. Schools would still exist. If anything, I wonder how “equal opportunity” it is to confine a kid to a crappy school district? I agree that it would be dangerous to worship free markets (great pic btw) and expect them to work for the eventual good of all. Unfortunately I haven’t researched/thought about it enough to outline exactly how privatized education would benefit everyone (it probably wouldn‘t), especially those who couldn‘t immediately pay for school (ie. the nuances of vouchers... what about immigrants, etc.? do certain schools charge more than others? would vouchers be insufficient for certain schools? i dunno...). But in principle, I don’t see how it is less equal opportunity than the current system. perma link |
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