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The Morality of School Choice

Balliol College, University of Oxford, UK

Summarising the arguments of How Not to Be A Hypocrite: School Choice for the Morally Perplexed Parent (Routledge Falmer 2003), the article discusses three questions. The first is whether parents who disapprove of elite private schools to such an extent that they would vote to ban them are acting hypocritically or inconsistently with their principles if they send their children to such schools. My answer is that they need not be. The second is whether parents should have the option of sending their children to such schools; whether those schools should be allowed to exist. My answer is that they should not. The third is whether, given that such schools do exist, parents are justified in sending their children to them. My answer is that in certain circumstances they may be, but that most of those who opt for such schools are not justified in doing so. As long as the state school is ‘good enough’, parents should send their children to that school, even where it would not be as good for their children as would private alternatives.

Key Words: equality of opportunity • hypocrisy • private education • school choice • social justice

Theory and Research in Education, Vol. 2, No. 1, 7-21 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1477878504040574


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