The moral and political premises of school choice policies

摘要

The contemporary debate over the appropriate scope for parent/family choice among state-supported schools--the 'school choice' debate--hinges on deeper questions about the nature of public purposes in education. A review of the contemporary literature on school choice shows, however, that many of the relevant issues in political philosophy have not been explicitly addressed, even though most discussions presuppose some identifiable set of philosophical assumptions. Starting from a more explicit treatment of these philosophical premises, seven different rationales for school choice policy, along with seven corresponding philosophical perspectives, are identified and contrasted. While the scope for consensus at this theoretical level is limited, John Rawls's political liberalism (1993) shows that a constructive synthesis of the various premises is possible. In conclusion, it is suggested that the political liberal view has special advantages over the rest as a philosophical basis for school choice policies.