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After the Future

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The Logic behind Vouchers, Charters, and Privatization in General

Today’s American right is an uneasy coalition among libertarian plutocrats and working-class and middle-class whites who depend on Social Security and Medicare and can’t afford to send their children to…

Today’s American right is an uneasy coalition among libertarian plutocrats and working-class and middle-class whites who depend on Social Security and Medicare and can’t afford to send their children to expensive private schools.  The need to win white middle American votes means that the right can’t simply promise to abolish public services, leaving the mass of Republican voters on their own.  In order to be electable, conservatives have to abandon pure libertarian principle and accept the idea of vouchers funded by taxation — even though this is really just “voucher socialism,” as hardcore libertarians sometimes point out.  But this doesn’t necessarily harm the right-plutocrats, particularly if they can invest in health insurance, private schooling or retirement savings companies that can vacuum up voucher money.  (Source)

This is  the logic of corporate education reform. It's the wolf of privatization cloaked in the sheepskin of consumer choice. Privatization, whether it's in education or in other public goods, is about letting markets rule rather than letting people rule themselves through the democratic process. It's a con because it seems to affirm our basic idea of freedom, but in the long run it undermines our freedom because when the market rules, those with the most market power control what there is to choose. 

Comments

3 responses

  1. Patrick Avatar
    Patrick

    The problem is that Republicans operate in bad faith. There are some cases in which “voucher socialism,” which is to say conditional transfer payments/redistribution, may be the best way to meet certain public needs (=/= public goods). The fear that someone might profit is the mirror image of GOP “welfare queen” mythology. So what? Either the specific policy will benefit American students in an equitable way, or not.
    It’s too bad that the GOP aren’t interested in helping poor people, and that their policymaking reflects this, but that’s not an argument against “voucher socialism” as such, or the logic of such a system.

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  2. Jack Whelan Avatar
    Jack Whelan

    My problem isn’t with vouchers in the abstract; it’s vouchers within the political context of political and economic elites trying to privatize everything. A victory here or there taken in isolation doesn’t seem that big a deal, but the cumulative effect is a very big deal.

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  3. Patrick Avatar
    Patrick

    For what it’s worth I support teachers’ unions in the abstract, but think that their interests are not always identical to the interests of students.

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