RALEIGH – As we close out 2005, it’s worth noting once again that 50 years ago, economist Milton Friedman kicked off the modern school-choice movement with the publication of an article proposing educational vouchers. Since then, the idea has gained traction, been enacted in limited form in a few jurisdictions, and debated seriously in many more.
Here is a sort of status report on school choice, by the numbers, based on data provided by the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation:
• Number of states featuring tax-funded voucher plans of some kind as of 2004-05: seven.
• Number of students enrolled in these voucher plans: 49,165.
• Number of students featuring tax deductions or credits for private-education expenses as of 2004: three.
• Number of families benefiting from these tax-fairness provisions: 542,910.
• Number of states featuring tax-funded private-scholarship programs as of 2004-05: three.
• Number of families benefiting from these scholarship programs: 57,391.
• Number of high-quality, random-assignment studies of the effects of choice programs encompassing public and private schools: eight.
• Number of such studies finding significant academic benefits for students using the programs to attend private schools: eight.
• Number of such studies finding adverse consequences for public-school performance: zero.
• Number of studies finding that public schools are better than private schools in promoting tolerance, civic participation, and racial integration in classrooms and lunchrooms: zero. (Indeed, most available research suggests that private education is better at performing these tasks than public schools are, despite the fact that many critics claim school choice would create social and racial inequities and tensions.)
Let’s hope that 2006 brings new hope to millions of schoolchildren in North Carolina and around the country – hope that their political leaders will get out of the way, stop subsidizing mediocre monopolies, and let their parents choose the best educational alternative without paying the current financial penalty. It may have become a cliché in free-market circles, but it happens to be true that parental choice in education is the civil-rights issue of the 21st century. Wealthy families already enjoy virtually total school choice, either through paying twice or through housing mobility. The poor have no such recourse.
If we truly want to reduce gaps in educational performance, which in turn play a significant role in our greatest economic and social challenges, we must embrace the principles of individual freedom and competition that create excellence in other fields of endeavor. That means an end to monopoly, central planning, and excuses.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.