Public School Daze

by David Salisbury

David Salisbury is director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute.

Some might wonder why we give government a near monopoly over education when the courts have viewed monopolies in other aspects of our economy as anathema to the American free enterprise system. Over recent decades, similar monopolies have been dismantled by government, including the monopoly over package delivery by the U.S. Postal Service and the monopoly over telephone service by Bell Telephone. Today, consumers have the choice of UPS, FedEx, and other couriers and enjoy cheap long-distance telephone service thanks to competition among providers.

Perhaps it's time to do what we did with the U.S. Post Office and Ma Bell and end the government monopoly control over education. School choice through vouchers or tuition tax credits is one way to do this. There is no good reason to doubt we would get higher quality, more variety, and greater efficiency from a market-based education system.