Re: [Phys-L] Economist Kern Alexander Explains the Problem with School Choice

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 02/02/2013 05:53 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:
> Can anyone make a rational argument that giving parents no choice is
> BETTER for students than giving them choice (even if they are not
> fully informed when making the choice)?

Nobody is going to make that argument, strictly speaking.

To say the same thing another way:  We can all agree to knock over 
that straw man.

Having dealt with that, let's move on to some far more meaningful
questions, such as:

  Consider a scenario where /some/ parents get a choice while others do 
  not.  Consider the hypothesis that the parents who get to choose (and 
  their children) wind up somewhat better off, while the others get
  royally screwed.  Consider the hypothesis that this is very bad policy,
  bad for *everyone* in the long run, bad in terms of overall economic 
  prosperity, military readiness, etc. etc. etc.

The straw-man argument is irrelevant because it tacitly assumes that 
"parents" can be treated as a group.  It makes the false assumption
that all parents are offered a comparable set of choices.

===========

To come at the issue another way:  Much depends on what you mean by
"BETTER".  Some folks are looking for a way to re-segregate the school
system along racial, partisan, and sectarian lines.  For them, the 
current school-choice programs are indeed vastly "BETTER".