School Choice: Beyond the Numbers
There are two distinct approaches to school choice. A market model,
taken from economics, is based on the empirical proposition that
introducing competition to education will improve the performance of
school systems and their students. An equity model, derived from a
concept of justice, is based on the normative proposition that all
parents deserve an equal opportunity to select the schools their
children attend. The two approaches are inextricably related, but often
confused and misapplied in debates about the desirability of school
choice. The validity of an empirical model is tested by the assembly of
measurable data that reasonable people can agree are relevant.
Normative models are assessed according to deep-seated values that
parties to a discussion claim to share.
Behind the choice debate that has occupied policymakers so intensely for the past 10 years is the fantastic notion that some day a group of dispassionate experts will objectively reach a judgment to determine whether or how it is safe to translate the explosive idea into policy without incurring unwitting harm. Of all the issues up for discussion among educational researchers, none is so packed with emotion. Many of the underlying premises to the debate are plainly irrational. Choice opponents defend the status quo by arguing that if we provided parents with the means to remove their children from traditional public schools, an overwhelming number would. Education is the only profession where the providers' lack of confidence in their own product is used as a rationale for rejecting an alternative.
Market purists, skeptical about the capability of the public sector to accomplish anything worthwhile, expect government officials to enact a revolutionary choice policy that is not only efficient but also just. Presently, there is little evidence that the market alone is capable of serving the needs of disadvantaged communities, whether the commodity in question is housing or groceries, recreation or health care. Equally absurd, however, is the assertion that we should not try choice until it can be proven to work, since it is impossible to demonstrate the viability of any idea that has not...
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