With education a topic of consideration on the blog recently, I’ll toss this into the mix:
A prominent supporter of a market-based approach to improving public schools, Sol Stern, says he no longer believes charter schools or vouchers are a “panacea.”
In an article published in the latest edition of City Journal, Mr. Stern, a Manhattan Institute fellow, portrays the libertarian approach that once inspired him as a failed experiment, and urges those who agree with him to search for a “Plan B.”
I don’t have access to the City Journal article referenced in this New York Sun piece, so it’s difficult to assess just how dispirited some in the choice camp may be these days.
But it seems rather deep, if Chester Finn’s lament is any indication:
…Finn, who has been a vocal advocate of school vouchers and charter schools, said yesterday in an e-mail message that he has “growing sympathy” with Mr. Stern’s skepticism. Mr. Finn stoked debate himself recently by declaring that one factor hurting charter schools in Ohio is “too much trust in market forces.”
I’m not sure it’s time to strike the tent and give up on school choice. I’m also not sure one can have “too much trust in market forces.”
But has the time for choice come and gone? And if it has, is there a Plan B?