Archive | 2019
“Other Conceptions, Both Powerful and Exotic”: School Choice Visions from Voices from the Political Left
Abstract
For contrast, this chapter focuses on several school choice proposals from the 1960s and 1970s that were not motivated by market libertarianism. Theodore Sizer (1932–2009) favored markets in education from the belief that they’d enhance equity, preserve diversity, and keep schools under the control of those within them. John “Jack” Coons (1929–) and Stephen Sugarman (1942–) created a school choice plan they believed would fund education more equitably than existing public school plans. John Holt (1923–1985) favored school choice as a way to lessen the cultural grip of conventional schooling and open the way for alternative vehicles for education. In each of these plans, governments would have several roles beyond what market libertarians would assign.