Education: Should Parents Have Options?

The question of whether parents should be given a choice about which schools their children attend is really an issue pertaining to the role of government. Should education continue to be nationalized, because the government subsidizes education? I found a website which has numerous links to articles, letters, and research. The overview can be found here. The reason this has become such a hot topic in recent years is simple according to Andrew J. Coulson. In many areas, public schools are failing to fulfill their basic functions, “achievement is stagnant or declining, public opinion is low, and community conflict over what is taught seems to be ever increasing” (Coulson). Parents and educators want a better system. “Education reformers have suggested a whole range of strategies for improving our schools, from new curricula and tougher standards, to charter schools, vouchers, and even complete privatization” (Coulson). However, it is hard to know which strategies will produce results. Coulson believes that the system must introduce some modicum of competition because “it is precisely the absence of competition between schools that stifles innovation and inflates prices.” This site also provides a link to a rather lengthy article by Milton Friedman titled “The Role of Government in Education” I have thought for some time that instating some system which would provide parents with some education choices would be a positive step. However, many people object to systems like the voucher system because they say that such a system would intensify class distinctions, make it more difficult to be sure that each child is taught the same common core values, and that in some more rural areas there are not enough students to warrant more than one school, thus, a natural monopoly is formed. Friedman dismisses all of these concerns, except the one of natural monopoly, in his article and emphasizes, “freedom to choose schools could be made available also in a governmentally administered system, but it is hard to see how it could be carried very far . . . competitive private enterprise is likely to be far more efficient in meeting consumer demand.” Education is necessary and is as a public good, in that every person who receives an education confers benefits upon other people in society. Thus, an educated person creates a positive externality, but it is impossible to charge only those people who benefit from the positive externality. The problem of free-riding will arise because people will say that they value the education that this person received less than they actually do, with the hopes that they then will not have to pay for the benefit that they receive. This is the argument for government subsidization and nationalization of education. These are necessary to ensure that every child is taught the same common core values. Or are they? I think in order to overcome free-riders it is necessary for the government at some level to have a uniform tax, which is set aside to pay for education costs. Otherwise, there would be people who benefit, but do not pay, which would create a market failure wherein enough quality education would not be provided. On the other hand, parents could be made to bear the costs of educating their own children. However, this sort of arrangement is unlikely to yield an optimal amount of education and many of the people who benefit are not made to pay for that benefit. A situation where parents bear the costs raises the question of what action should be taken when they cannot meet this obligation. Therefore, I think that government taxation and subsidization is necessary in order to spread the costs of education across all of the people who benefit. It is not necessary though for this education to be nationalized, and in fact, the quality of the education will probably be better under a system such as the voucher system, which would induce competition. In conclusion, the answer in my opinion is that parents should be offered some choices, because the competition induced by these choices would improve the education system.