In this post, Thomas Ultican reviews Steve Suitts’ devastating new book about the origins of school choice.
Advocates of school choice like to claim economist Milton Friedman as their godfather but Suitts, who has spent his career working in civil rights activism, shows that the true originators of “freedom of choice” were Southern governors and legislatures who were determined to thwart the Brown decision of 1954. Suitts doesn’t ignore Friedman. He points out that his 1955 essay proposing freedom of choice proposed that in a choice system, there would be all-white schools, all-black schools, and mixed-race schools.
The segregationists loved Friedman’s ideas because it mirrored their own. They knew that in a free-choice regime, the status quo would be preserved by racism and intimidation.
So when you hear libertarians and right wingers talking about the glories of choice, think George Wallace. Think Bull Connor. Think James Eastland. Think White Citizens Councils. Read Steve Suitts’ book and be informed. Don’t be fooled by those who claim falsely that choice advances civil rights. It does not. It never has.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
School choice is another tool designed to segregate students. It is a sordid, shameful practice that continues today. Ultican understands we must change course by stopping the privatization of our democratic public schools and stop sending public funds to unaccountable religious and other private schools.
The whole concept of race is a man-made construct. Biological anthropologist, Alan Goodman, has shown that there is more biological variation among people in what would be considered the same race than variation among the so-called races. White people donate organs to black people, and black people donate to white people all the time with the same level of risk. If there were so many biological differences, this practice would be impossible. https://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-01-07.htm
“Think” Jake Auchincloss in Massachusetts who is running for Joe Kennedy’s seat and “think” the Boston Globe editorial staff who endorsed him.
it strikes me that the modern purveyors of choice are using a golden apple (who does not like to have choice) to lure create a class system I America. Make no mistake about it, modern choice schemes would create a class society here like the one that produced a lower class in England during the enclosure movement and into the industrial revolution. In our country, this has an ethnic edge to it because of the heritage of the exclusion of certain ethnic groups, but it is still socio-economic in nature and will damage many different ethnic groups, some of which are staunch supporters of these “choice” schemes.
Is choice really the “civil rights issue of our day?” Hardly. Seems to me that civil rights is the civil rights issue of our day.
key point: “Some of which are staunch supporters of these ‘choice’ schemes…”
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
Is there a stereotype for what a white racist looks like, because if there is one I bet Zuckerberg fits in that nitch. I was thinking of how Facebook’s ad polices and Suckerberg’s support for charters and school choice encourage lies, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and racism.
Great piece, Tom!