Chester Finn, senior editor of EducationNext and chairman of Hoover?s Koret Task Force on K-12 education, should know better. His Why Not Religious Charter Schools? in the December 10, 2003 Education Week newspaper is a classic ?dead mackerel by moonlight, both stinking and shining at once.?
Set before us by Finn is the shining prospect of established religious schools, now made available to the public free of charge as public charter religious schools. Yes, the idea stinks.
Finn?s dead mackerel ultimately won?t work to save public education, but it may well destroy private education in the process. European religious schools are virtually nonexistent, thanks to government ?help? in tuition. In the U.S., public charter ?home schools? in Alaska and California have eliminated virtually all of the choices that home school families had before they accepted government ?help.?
Consumers always want a zero price. If setting prices of private market goods to zero enhanced freedom (or choice), we could maximize choice today by declaring all goods to be free (socialized) immediately. Oh wait, this has already been tried, and none too successfully.
There is no ?greater good? in destroying some families? privately purchased choices, on the slim hope of improving public education on average. The different perspectives on transforming private religious schools into public charter schools are not equally worthy. For parents who originally selected a religious school as their private choice, this is the death of choice. With payment comes control. The anti-market types know this at least as well as pro-marketeers.
