Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said that he supports parents’ “choice to send their children to any public school, charter school or private school with state funding following the student.” The Republican Party of Texas has listed school choice as a priority in the upcoming legislative session. However, rural Republicans oppose school choose measures. They are concerned that school choice would lead to the closure of local government schools and the sense of community they engender. While that concern may be well-founded, it evades the full context.
Let us say that the state government gave every child a voucher that could be used at any school in Texas. The child’s parents could choose the local government school, a government school elsewhere in the state, a charter school, or a private school.
If, given a choice, most parents send their children to the local government school, the school would remain open. However, the opponents of school choice imply that parents will opt out of the local government school and the school will have to close.
If the government schools are doing such a great job educating the state’s students, then they should not fear allowing parents to choose. If they have the best educational product, then a little competition should be welcomed.
But government schools do not have the best educational product, and opponents of school choice implicitly admit this. They believe that, if parents have a choice, government schools will lose students. And so, they support policies that force property owners to financially support government schools and prevent parents from choosing where their children are educated. They want to use coercion to obtain what they can’t attain through voluntary means.
The “community spirit” created by government schools is not founded on benevolence. It is a spirit founded on coercion. It is a spirit of individuals being forced to sacrifice, regardless of their own choices, desires, and values. It is a spirit that prohibits individuals from choosing for themselves.
The operative word in “school choice” is choice. The defenders of government schools want to deny parents freedom of choice in regard to education.