John Hood gave me a great suggestion a week or two ago. Here in the Locke Foundation offices we have volumes of The Freeman (published by the Foundation for Economic Education) going back to the 1960s. John pointed out some great articles that he stumbled across by pulling old volumes at random and thumbing through them. He suggested that I might want to try it. So I?ve taken him up on the suggestion.
Unfortunately, very few of these articles are online so in most cases it?s not possible to link to them. But that has changed for one article that I came across that was a real forerunner when it comes to current debates between libertarians and conservatives on school choice. I came across this piece while thumbing through Vol. 21 from 1971. Actually this wasn?t totally random. I grabbed 1971 because it was the year that I graduated high school?also the year I discovered libertarianism. The article is from the April issue and is titled ?The Voucher System: Trap for the Unwary.? I called this article to the attention of the people at FEE. They thought it was great and have posted it on the web. It can be accessed here.
After the author Robert Patton makes the now familiar arguments (but not so familiar in 1971) about how vouchers are likely to destroy private education, he also points out the ?pin-prick libertarian? nature of the choice-itarian view. It is classic Freeman. Responding to (again) the now familiar rejoinder of the voucher advocates?at the time he probably had Milton Friedman in mind–Patton states that:
They might argue that the dismal possibilities I have cited are simply potential pitfalls, not necessary consequences; if we anticipate these statist measures, they can be fought and defeated. Therefore, they might conclude, the voucher system can be a constructive step toward the elimination of coercive government control of our pocketbooks and of our children’s minds.
To answer this argument, let us examine the nature of the “choice” that the proponents of the voucher system offer?The so-called element of choice amounts to offering the parents of school-age children options in how they may spend the money of others that has been expropriated by the state?The unfortunate fact is that when the state takes over any market function, its citizens soon come to regard this as a natural and proper state of affairs?Just as the liberal may seek an expansion of welfare services on the grounds that present programs fail to meet the full needs of the people, so many “conservatives” are falling into the trap of advocating an expansion of the state’s role in education because their needs are not satisfied by the present system.
Those proponents of liberty who advocate the voucher system fail to recognize that?the fundamental premise of the voucher plan is identical to that underlying the present system of state education. The coercive power of the state?will still be used to seize the property of private individuals in the name of an undefinable public good.
Just when you think you?ve got something original to say you realize there ain?t no such thing.
