I just received an email from from a school choice outfit known as Clergy for Educational Options. They are a great example of how the school choice movement is invoking a leftist view of rights. I believe that it is the view of rights that is the most consistent with the policies proposed by school choice advocates. The quote below is from CEO’s web site.
“Our mission is to be agents for equity and quality in education, and to be advocates for the rights of African American and other minority families to access all educational and economical options.”
Excuse me! Where in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence does it even suggest that anyone has a “right” to “access all educational and economical options”? Clearly if we substituted “health care” or “housing” or “job” for “educational” in the above quote it could easily have come from the NC Justice Center or the platform of the Democratic Party or even the Green Party. The minute you refer to a similarly socialistic view of rights with respect to education you are following “conservative priciples.” Huh?
Here is the poll question that this group is circulating.
“Should Parents have the power to select the educational environment they feel is best for their child? Should they have the right to actively decide between schools and programs that best fits their child?”
Since parents already have this right, i.e. they can enter the market place and purchase whatever educational services they can afford (just like anything else), there is only one reasonable way to interpret this. That is “should parents have the right” to make these decision at taxpayer expense? There is only one answer to this question that is consistent with conservative or libertarian principles–HELL NO!
