Making Up Our Mind

Michael C Johanek, Sigal R Ben-Porath

ISBN 10: 022661946X / ISBN 13: 9780226619460

Published by The University of Chicago Press, US, 2019

About this Item

If free market advocates had total control over education policy, would the shared public system of education collapse? Would school choice revitalize schooling with its innovative force? With proliferating charters and voucher schemes, would the United States finally make a dramatic break with its past and expand parental choice? That's not only the wrong question--it's the wrong premise, argue philosopher Sigal R. Ben-Porath and historian Michael C. Johanek in Making Up Our Mind. Market-driven school choices aren't a new. They predate the republic, and for generations parents have chosen to educate their children through an evolving mix of publicly supported, private, charitable, and entrepreneurial enterprises. This process has arguably always been influenced by market forces, especially those of parental demand, and, more recently, by the impact of coordinated corporate and philanthropic influence. The question is not whether to have school choice. It is how we will regulate who has which choices in our mixed market for schooling--and what we, as a nation, hope to accomplish with that mix of choices. Making Up Our Mind looks beyond the simple divide between those who oppose government intervention and those who support public education as a way to nurture a democratic, integrated public sphere. Instead, the authors make the case for a structured landscape of choice in schooling, one that protects the interests of children and of society, while also identifying key shared values on which a broadly acceptable policy could rest.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780226619460

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Making Up Our Mind
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press, US
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022661946X
• ISBN 13: 9780226619460
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

If free market advocates had total control over education policy, would the shared public system of education collapse? Would school choice revitalize schooling with its innovative force? With proliferating charters and voucher schemes, would the United States finally make a dramatic break with its past and expand parental choice?

Those are not only the wrong questions—they’re the wrong premises, argue philosopher Sigal R. Ben-Porath and historian Michael C. Johanek in Making Up Our Mind. Market-driven school choices aren’t new. They predate the republic, and for generations parents have chosen to educate their children through an evolving mix of publicly supported, private, charitable, and entrepreneurial enterprises. The question is not whether to have school choice. It is how we will regulate who has which choices in our mixed market for schooling—and what we, as a nation, hope to accomplish with that mix of choices. Looking beyond the simplistic divide between those who oppose government intervention and those who support public education, the authors make the case for a structured landscape of choice in schooling, one that protects the interests of children and of society, while also identifying key shared values on which a broadly acceptable policy could rest.

About the Author

Sigal R. Ben-Porath is professor of education, philosophy, and political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and coauthor of Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice Is Really About.