Another Reason to Support School Choice

Ronald Bailey | November 14, 2005

Without commenting on the legal reasoning behind the Supreme Court's 6 to 2 ruling today in the case of Brian Schaffer et al v. Jerry Weast, it does constitute a further argument for school choice. As the Washington Post explained:

The Supreme Court, using a Montgomery County, Md., case to resolve a long-running, hotly contested national dispute, ruled today that the nation's school systems are not legally obliged to prove the adequacy of individualized educational programs set up for disabled children. Rather, the court said, it is up to individual parents, when dissatisfied, to demonstrate a program's inadequacy.

On the other hand, if parents had vouchers they could use them to select schools whose programs they believe are adequate to their children's needs. Vouchers transform parents and children into customers who can shop around. It is a simple universal truth that people are treated better as customers than they are as supplicants.