Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

3. For the natural rights advocate public school
i s i mm0 r a I for a n add i t iona I r e'a son :. "i t de p r i vesthe
tax victims of' their right to their entire income."(22)
4. Finally, libertarians believe that public
schooling invariably engenders social conflict. The
government must make decisions concerning the standards
and curricula of "its" schools. Regardless of how the
decisions are made, i.e., whether they are democratic
or not, the fact remains that the decisions become the
policy of all the schools within the government's juri
s die t ion. Con s e qu e n t I y, wh enthere are no a I t erna ­
t i ves to the state, parents can obtain the type of education
they want for their children only by grabbing
control of the school board and imposing their personal
preferences on everyone's children by making them the
official government pol icy. Hence, we are daily met
with conflicts over busing, sex education, school prayers,
liberal versus vocational education, relevance in
the cur ric u 1 urn, etc. But i nthe a bsen s e 0 f com pu Iso r y
state education these controversies would disappear,
for a wide variety of educational alternatives would
pre sen t thems e I veson the f r e e rna r ke t • Eve r yone, libertarians
feel, could then purchase the type of educat
i on he des ired wi thout inter fer ing wi th the right of
others to obtain the type of education they desired.
Before one can discuss the type of educational
system advocated by libertarians, two things should be
noted. First, they deny that anyone has a "right to an
education." As we have seen earlier,(23) libertarian
moral ists believe that rights, by definition, inhere in
the nature of man. They are universal and timeless,
i.e., they belong to all men irrespective of the circumstances
prevailing at anyone time or place. To
"speak of a 'right' as something which can only be fulfilled
in modern industrial conditions," they contend,
"is not to speak of a human, natural right at all."
Since schooling is just such a good it is "not embedded
in the nature of man, but requires for its fulfillment
the existence of a group of exploited people who are
coerced into providing such a 'right'."(24) Second,
libertarians maintain a sharp distinction between
schooling and education. Education is seen as a lifelong
process. "When the child plays or listens to
parents or friends, or reads a newspaper, or works at a
job, he 0 r she i s be com i n g e d u cat e d . n ( 2 5 ) For rna ]
school ing is seen as only one part of one's education
and for some, such as those who are good with their
hands but who have little or no interest in Shake-
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