School Choice: Myths and Traps

Willis D. Hawley ("The Predictable Consequences of School Choice," Commentary, April 10, 1996) has no evidence supporting his assertions that children who attend public schools that mix children from different ethnic and religious backgrounds graduate more tolerant and well-behaved adults than children who don't attend such schools. In fact, in Los Angeles, race riots between rival racial groups are common occurrences. Students sit in separate racial groups at lunch time and in play yards. I'll bet that a kid cloistered in an all-white or all-black religious school is far less likely to graduate spewing racist rhetoric and fomenting violence than a public school graduate.

Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the mixing of different races and socioeconomic backgrounds in public schools is a myth for most of America. Public schools, like their neighborhoods in cities and suburbs, are usually divided along economic and racial lines.

Absent any sense of moral mission, the mere "mixing" of students doesn't provide any benefits. The glue that binds students comes from the values imbued in a school's curriculum and its staff. Because these values are missing from public schools, parents of all races and income levels are seeking them in private schools. If Willis D. Hawley bothered to visit some private schools in low-income neighborhoods and talk to these parents, he would have discovered this fact. Then he could have written a...