Private Schools Provide Educational Choice—For Now: New at Reason

For families uninterested in whatever education public schools may provide, the most established alternatives continue to be independent schools run by private groups, religious organizations, and businesses. They recruit students by offering strong academics, religious and moral instruction, and different approaches ranging from firmer discipline to student-guided education.

That such schoos continue to attract families that (usually) must pay tuition on top of the taxes they’re forced to cough up to support government institutions is a testament to their success in satisfying customers, suggests J.D. Tuccille. But that success has long stuck in the craws of some critics, including government officials. They’ve launched attacks including efforts a century ago to outright ban private schooling in Oregon and modern New York’s scheme to strip such schools of anything more than a façade of autonomy.

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