The Choice Should Be Yours: "... Education analysts and commentators long have ignored the distinct possibility that public schooling spurs constant conflict, and the corollary, that choice would foster peace in education.".

• Author: McCluskey, Neal
• Position: EDUCATION

IF YOU FORCED two hungry people into an arena, especially if they already disliked each other, and told them only the person who emerged triumphant got fed, would you be surprised if they fought? The surprise, of course, would be if they did not. That is, essentially, what public schooling does: forces diverse people into political arenas called "school districts," and increasingly "states," to determine whose children will get the intellectual food they need. Yet, education analysts and commentators long have ignored the distinct possibility that public schooling spurs constant conflict, and the corollary, that choice would foster peace in education.

The deafening debate over critical race theory (CRT) and, to a lesser extent, the treatment of transgender students, seems to be changing that. While I have written for years about how public schooling divides and choice can bring more peace, it rarely has generated much discussion, but now others are increasingly tackling those themes.

Of course, more writing does not mean more accepting the need for choice. American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Robert Pondiscio recently weighed in on choice-as-peacemaker. He raised substantive objections, but also deemed the position as "naive" and a "talking point." That said, he linked to Cato's Public Schooling Battle Map and wrote, "Cato notes, not insensibly, that 'public schooling often forces people into wrenching, zero-sum conflict.'"

Pondiscio, it appears, thinks the Map may well be onto something: public schooling really might fuel social conflict. So, what are his objections to choice-as-peacemaker? There are four:

* We socialize the cost of elementary and secondary education--everyone, with or without school-age children, must pay--so all have standing to help decide, through government, what is or is not taught.

* Education is at least partly a "public good," and everyone should have a say, via government, in shaping the next generation.

* Many private schools are beset by "wokeness," so private schooling will be no escape from CRT.

* We are far from universal school choice, so the choice "solution" really is not one.

I will start with a concession--sort of--on number four. There is, indeed, too little choice right now for most people to select schools that share their views on CRT, or sundry other divisive issues, but the choice-as-peacemaker proposition is about explaining what needs to be done, not what exists--and, for what it is...