By Matthew Lau, June 16, 2020 by Financial Post
Even if independent and charter schools were not demonstrably better than government-run schools, that wouldn’t alter the fact that families should have greater access to different educational options.
Over the past year, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University has released a series of delightful one-minute videos featuring a cartoon Milton Friedman explaining key economic insights. One recent offering is about diversity and freedom. In a free society, people can make their own choices and pursue their own preferences, different from the choices and preferences of others. “It’s this diversity, the fact that there isn’t a monolithic conformity imposed on us,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist-toon says, “that is the source of protection for our freedom, and also the fruit of freedom.” The one-minute lesson? Diversity and the freedom to choose go hand in hand.
The opposite of diversity and freedom is a government monopoly. The fact that in Canada there is both a government monopoly on health care and a near-monopoly on schooling suggests this country isn’t as free and diverse as many of us might think. And, ironically, the progressives who usually preach the virtues of diversity tend to be most strongly opposed to diversity in health-care and educational choices.