capitalism

142 Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803–1882)
of government schooling have become commonplace. In
fact, studies have shown that currently the cost of public
school education is appropriately twice that of the average
private school. Defenders of government-run school systems,
however, dispute all of these allegations. They assert
that the average student today completes many more years
of schooling, their achievements have held constant or gone
up, pedagogical experts make better educational decisions
than do parents, cost increases have either been overstated
or are justifiable, community conflicts over education are
not attributable to the state operation of schools, and the
level of parental involvement is a cultural phenomenon
unrelated to school governance structures.
These different assessments have spurred a debate over
the merits of market-run versus state-run education. No
consensus has yet been reached, and there exist several
occasionally overlapping viewpoints. At one end of the
spectrum are those who feel that government schooling is
the best, if not the only, mechanism for fulfilling the public’s
social goals for education. This group advocates
improving educational outcomes through higher spending,
reduced class sizes, enhanced teacher certification and
training, leadership programs for administrators, and the
like. A second group also sees the government operation
and oversight of schools as indispensable, but believes that
the system would improve if all families chose from among
the available government schools, rather than having their
children automatically assigned to a school. This practice is
known as public school choice. A third group agrees with
the need for parental choice, but feels that that choice is too
confined by existing government school regulations. They
recommend easing these regulations for state schools that
promise to deliver a minimum level of student achievement.
Government schools operating under this combination
of eased regulations and contractual performance
obligations are called charter schools. Charter schools,
argues a fourth group, are good so far as they go, but do not
go far enough. This group believes that government schools
operating under charters have too many limitations compared
with independent schools, among them the likelihood
of reregulation and the inability to offer devotional religious
instruction, set tuition levels, or control admissions.
Their solution to these problems is to allow for state subsidization
of education without government provision of
schooling. In particular, they recommend that the state
distribute the money it collects in taxes earmarked for
education directly to families on a per-child basis. These
disbursements, most famously proposed by economist
Milton Friedman in the early 1950s, have come to be
known as vouchers. A final group asserts that the pseudomarket
policies advocated by the other groups would not
produce a competitive, consumer-driven education industry.
This last group further contends that genuinely free
markets in education, when supplemented with means-tested
private or state subsidies, best meet the public’s individual
and social goals for education.
See also Children; Family; Privacy; Privatization
Further Readings
Bowen, James. A History of Western Education: Volume One. The
Ancient World: Orient and Mediterranean. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1972.
Cicero. “The Republic.” Cicero XVI. London: Heinemann, 1988.
Coulson, Andrew J. Market Education: The Unknown History.
New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1999.
Marrou, Henri I. A History of Education in Antiquity. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1982.
Nakosteen, M. History of Islamic Origins of Western Education.
Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1964.
West, E. G. Education and the State: A Study in Political Economy.
Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 1994.
EMERSON, RALPH WALDO
(1803–1882)
AC
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Massachusetts native, was one of
the founders of Transcendentalism, a philosophical, literary,
and cultural movement that stressed spiritual oneness
with nature, reliance on inner experience, and rejection of
social conformity. Other prominent Transcendentalists
included Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau.
Although Emerson began as a Unitarian minister, his
increasing emphasis on feeling and conduct over creeds and
external forms led him to resign the pulpit in 1832.
Emerson insisted that a human life should be guided more
by inner development than by traditions, institutions, or
social expectations. This ethical individualism expressed
itself in political liberalism, but grudgingly so. Emerson
long opposed slavery, the mistreatment of American
Indians, and the denial of the suffrage to women, yet he disliked
political involvement and felt that social reform must
begin with the reform of the individual. Despite an initial
tendency to regard reformers as alienated busybodies, however,
Emerson reluctantly became one himself, when passage
of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 played a crucial role
in radicalizing him. The eventual extent of his political
engagement is, in fact, often underestimated by those who
rely solely on his early works. Despite the philosophical
complexities of his prose, Emerson also became a popular
and influential lecturer. His popularity did not preclude his
becoming a frequent target of attack as well, first for his
heterodox religious views and later for his increasingly militant
abolitionism.