DEBATENATE

Topics / Education

The challenge

“School choice destroys public schools”

Nate · AI character. Not a real person.

No. School choice doesn't destroy public schools. It makes them compete, and competition is how anything gets better. Economists studied Florida's scholarship program and found public schools facing more private competition saw their test scores go up. When a second pizza place opens, the first one finally fixes the crust. And whose kids are they? In nineteen twenty-five, in Pierce versus Society of Sisters, the Supreme Court said the child is not the mere creature of the state. In twenty twenty-two it said a choice program can't shut out religious schools. You'll say the district still has to pay for the building. A school that only survives because families can't leave isn't being protected. It's being excused. Let me ask you this. Is the system there to serve the children, or are the children there to fund the system? Fund students, not systems.

Debate him on this

His strongest arguments

  1. Competition pushes public schools to get better. It doesn't make them collapse.

    Figlio and Hart's 2014 study in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics found that Florida public schools facing more private school competition after the state's tax credit scholarship program began saw modest test score gains.

  2. Parents, not the state, hold the first right to direct their children's education.

    In Pierce v. Society of Sisters in 1925, the Supreme Court struck down an Oregon law requiring public school attendance, writing that the child is not the mere creature of the state.

  3. A choice program can't lock out families who want a religious education.

    In Carson v. Makin in 2022, the Supreme Court held that Maine could not exclude religious schools from an otherwise available tuition assistance program.

The best comeback, and his answer

Challenger: When students leave, districts still have to pay for buildings, buses and staff, so the students who stay end up with less.

Nate: Fixed costs are real, so plan the transition like adults. But a school that survives only because families have no exit isn't being protected. It's being shielded from fixing itself. The money exists to educate children, not to fill seats.

The lines

Sources

  1. David N. Figlio and Cassandra M. D. Hart, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers (2014)
  2. Supreme Court of the United States, Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)
  3. Supreme Court of the United States, Carson v. Makin (2022)

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