Dedicated to the proposition
“Matters of fact … are very stubborn things.” Tindal, Will of Matthew Tindal My Catholic elementary school in Duluth, Minnesota, shared a boundary line with a large public school, East...
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Jack Coons: Childhood responsibility and freedom
Webster defines the adjectives “free” and “responsible” as follows: Free: Acting of one’s own will or choice and not under compulsion or restraint; determining one’s own action or choice. Responsible:...
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In memory of a champion of school choice for lower-income parents
Stephen Dwight Sugarman died the day after Christmas, interrupting almost 60 years of our friendship and collaboration on this planet. His unique character, personality, and family life I will save...
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A demerit for ‘merit’
High on a throne of royal state … Satan exalted sat, by merit raised To that bad eminence … — Milton, Paradise Lost I like the Garter; there is no...
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Hope for our young kin?
Jim and Alice have three children and a modest income. Should their income status justify our forcing these kids into their local assigned public school? Are such parents unqualified to...
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How will choice affect inner-city public schools?
In any ample, subsidized program of parental choice, the student population of public schools in the inner-city will diminish. What, then, will be the effect upon the education in those...
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Is this dawn?
I wonder how many registered Republicans and Democrats agree with all, or even most, of their own party’s declared positions on today’s critical civic issues. Many Democrats are Catholics; more...
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Choice smeared: Union bunk versus reality
In 1978, Stephen D. Sugarman and I published our third book on school finance, “Education Choice: the Case for Family Control.” That summer, we designed a constitutional initiative for parental...
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Just another argument for education choice
The late, great Marilyn mothered our five children. As they accumulated over the span of eight years, she retired from teaching in her public elementary school but never lost her...
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All parents welcome
“I can dare to be poor, which is the only thing now-a-days that men are ashamed of.” John Gay, Polly Consider the probable effects of a state system of subsidized...
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A letter to President Joe Biden
Dear President Biden, I am an ancient Berkeley law professor, long absent from the classroom but still scribbling, mostly about the schooling of children. My enduring hope for this country...
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Give us your poor
“It’s the poor wot gets the blame.” — Anonymous There seems a fairly common conviction among us that many, even most, of our lower-income parents, for various reasons, fall below...
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Playing the prophet for choice
“The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.” — Letter to Thos. Walpole, Horace Walpole Such good advice notwithstanding, let us assume that the state of Montucky adopts an...
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The powers that be
It’s the same the whole word over, It’s the poor wot gets the blame, It’s the rich wot gets the pleasure, Ain’t it all a blooming shame. — Anonymous Little...
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A campus of choices
Multitudes in the valley of decision Old Testament, Book of Joel Suppose that the legislature and governor of your state agree that some legal mechanism must be adopted to empower...
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In a word
A word spoken in good season, how good it is! — Proverbs, the Old Testament The various forms of government subsidy for parental choice of a child’s school have been...
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From where will common sense emerge?
“Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.” — Macbeth, Shakespeare Our national fuddle over the role of government (public?) schools during the pandemic is yet another throwback to the days of...
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Choice and the civic soul
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” G.B. Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists Shaw’s wit suggests the primary harvest of our “public” school systems for children of the...
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