Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education
Over the next year we can expect to hear a lot from Republican presidential candidates about school choice- the word of choice to marshal political support to expand the number charter schools and vouchers for private schools. Democrats, except maybe the governor of New York, have traditionally opposed public funding for vouchers. However, many have supported the idea of choice by sending scarce tax dollars to charter schools. We have yet to hear clear statements from the Democratic candidates about where they stand.
As policy framing rhetoric, the word choice is meant evoke the imagery of democracy and equity. Words are powerful, especially in framing and influencing political debates. Words can conjure positive or negative emotional responses. However, sometimes words clarify and sometimes they obscure underlying values. So it is with choice.
In our culture the "the right to choose" suggests an almost inalienable individual right, making for powerfully resonant political rhetoric. However, behind the easy-to-swallow positive connotation of choice, there is underlying message in its use in the context of education. If stated explicitly, the message might cause a little indigestion: Be out for yourself and don't worry so much about your neighbors or community.
I do not say this to castigate parents who choose to send their children to charter schools or the teachers who work in them. However, what is moral or sensible for an individual does not make for sound or just education policy for a society. The moral burden falls not on parents, but on those who knowingly advance the wellbeing of the at the expense of the many.
Many centuries ago Rabbi Hillel sagely wrote,
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14.
It is time to reframe the policy dialog from choosing just for me to choosing to ensure better schools for us.
There is reason for hope. While choice is a deeply held American value, so is community responsibility. In fact, reference to individualism and community responsibility in politics has ebbed and flowed in recent American history. The New Deal of the 1930s and the Great Society of the 1960's- catalyzed by the labor and civil rights movements- represented high points for collective solutions, such as Social Security or Medicare, to complex problems. Alternatively, the election of Ronald Reagan initiated a sustained period of individualism. In periods of relative or growing equity and shared prosperity individualism may foster personal interests and Democrats: There Are Better Choices Than School Choice to Improve Education | Arthur Camins:
