Abstract
This chapter focuses on the philosophical questions and tensions involved in the phenomenon of charter schools (United States), free schools (United Kingdom), and similar schools that give students and parents greater choice within public school systems. After a brief review of these reforms and their shared rationales, I focus on the philosophical questions about the purposes, aims, and values raised by autonomous schools of choice. This chapter reviews these philosophical questions along two broad dimensions: (1) rights, pluralism, and autonomy and (2) democracy, justice, and equity. I conclude by sketching out implications of these philosophical questions for choice policy and practice and some recommendations for employing philosophical frameworks in the analysis of these policies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
A review of the 34 members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that two-thirds of these countries allow a certain degree of school choice (Musset 2012).
- 2.
This is not an exhaustive list. Other countries (i.e., Chile, Colombia, Germany) have related policies that offer public funding for private schools. Sweden relies on voucher-like funding to support attendance at fristående skolor; Western Australia has recently introduced a charter-like system of schools called the Independent Public School (IPS) Initiative; many other countries (i.e., South Africa, the Czech Republic, China) have also experimented with choice provisions. I’ve focused my review on the choice systems that have prioritized the development of autonomous public schools of choice.
- 3.
For a discussion about the centrality of academic quality in choice, see Schneider et al. 2002.
- 4.
While focused on international contexts and autonomous schools of choice, certain parts of these next sections are updated from literature I reviewed in a previous chapter (Wilson 2012).
- 5.
- 6.
Suissa (2010) critiques this view as unrealistic; in her view, the assumption that families hold a ‘comprehensive conception of the good’ relies on a reductive view of the shifting and multi-faceted values held by actual families.
References
Ben-Porath, S. (2009). Deferring virtue: The new management of students and the civic role of schools. Theory and Research in Education, 11(2), 111–128.
Ben-Porath, S. (2010). Tough choices: Structured paternalism and the landscape of choice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bergström, Y. (2010). The universal right to education: Freedom, equality and fraternity. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29(2), 167–182.
Bosetti, L., & Gereluk, D. (2016). Understanding school choice in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Brighouse, H. (1998). Civic education and liberal legitimacy. Ethics, 108(4), 719–745.
Brighouse, H. (2000). School choice and social justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brighouse, H. (2003). How should children be heard? Arizona Law Review, 45(3), 691–711.
Brighouse, H. (2004). What’s wrong with privatising schools? Journal of Philosophy of Education, 38(4), 617–631.
Brighouse, H. (2007). Educational justice and socio-economic segregation in schools. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41(4), 575–590.
Bryk, A. S., Lee, V. E., & Holland, P. B. (1993). Catholic schools and the common good. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Burtt, S. (2003). Comprehensive education and the liberal understanding of autonomy. In K. McDonough & W. Feinberg (Eds.), Citizenship and education in liberal-democratic societies: Teaching for cosmopolitan values and collective identities (pp. 179–207). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Callan, E. (1997). Creating citizens: Political education and liberal democracy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Chubb, J., & Moe, T. (1990). Politics, markets and America’s schools. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Colburn, B. (2012). Responsibility and school choice in education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 46(2), 207–222.
Drake, R. (2015). Schools, pupils and their characteristics. London: Department of Education. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015. Accessed 1 Oct 2016.
Feinberg, W. (2006). For goodness sake: Religious schools and education for democratic citizenry. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.
Finn, C. E., Jr., Manno, B. V., & Vanourek, G. (2000). Charter schools in action: Renewing public education. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Fiske, E. B., & Ladd, H. F. (2003). School choice in New Zealand: A cautionary tale. In D. N. Plank & G. Sykes (Eds.), Choosing choice: School choice in international perspective (pp. 45–67). New York: Teachers College Press.
Fraser, N. (2014). Justice interruptus: Critical reflections on the “postsocialist” condition. New York: Routledge.
Galston, W. A. (1991). Liberal purposes: Goods, virtues, and diversity in the liberal state. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Galston, W. (2002). Liberal pluralism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Golann, J. W. (2015). The paradox of success at a no-excuses school. Sociology of Education, 88(2), 103–119.
Gutmann, A. (1999). Democratic education. (Revised edition). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hamilton, L. S., & Guin, K. (2005). Understanding how families choose schools. In J. R. Betts & T. Loveless (Eds.), Getting choice right: Ensuring equity and efficiency in education policy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Hand, M. (2006). Against autonomy as an educational aim. Oxford Review of Education, 32(4), 535–550.
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Howe, K. (2007). On the (in)feasibility of school choice for social justice. In Philosophy of education 2006 (pp. 259–267). Normal: Philosophy of Education Society.
Knight Abowitz, K. (2001). Charter schooling and social justice. Educational Theory, 51(3), 151–170.
Knight Abowitz, K., & Karaba, R. (2010). Charter schooling and democratic justice. Educational Policy, 24(3), 534–558.
Ladd, H. (2003). Introduction. In D. N. Plank & G. Sykes (Eds.), Choosing choice: School choice in international perspective (pp. 1–22). New York: Teachers College Press.
Levinson, M. (1999). The demands of liberal education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lubienski, C. (2003). Instrumentalist perspectives on the ‘public’ in public education: Incentives and purposes. Educational Policy, 17(4), 478–502.
Macedo, S. (2003). Diversity and distrust: Civic education in a multicultural democracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
McConnell, M. W. (2001). Educational disestablishment: Why democratic values are ill-served by democratic control of schooling. In S. Macedo & Y. Tamir (Eds.), NOMOS XLIII: Moral and political education. New York: New York University Press.
McLaughlin, T. H. (2003). The burdens and dilemmas of common schooling. In K. McDonough & W. Feinberg (Eds.), Citizenship and education in liberal-democratic societies: Teaching for cosmopolitan values and collective identities (p. 2003). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Merry, M. (2005). Cultural coherence and the schooling for identity maintenance. Journal of Philosophy Education, 39(3), 477–497.
Merry, M. & Karsten, S. (2010). Restricted liberty, parental choice and homeschooling. Journal of Philosophy of Education 44(4): 497–514.
Merry, M. (2011). Segregation and social virtue. Educational Theory, 62(4), 465–486.
Moses, M. S. (2002). The heart of the matter: Philosophy and educational research. Review of Research in Education, 26, 1–21.
Musset, P. (2012). School choice and equity: Current policies in OECD countries and a literature review. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 66. OECD Publishing (NJ1).
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. (2017). Estimated charter public school enrollment, 2016–2017. http://www.publiccharters.org/publications/estimated-charter-public-school-enrollment-2016-17/. Accessed 15 Aug 2017.
Parry, T. R. (1997). Decentralization and privatization: Education policy in Chile. Journal of Public Policy, 17(1), 107–133.
Poulter, S. (1987). Ethnic minority customs, English law and human rights. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 36(3), 589–615.
Pring, R. (2007). The common school. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41(4), 503–522.
Reich, R. (2002). Bridging liberalism and multiculturalism in American education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Reich, R. (2007). How and why to support common schooling and educational choice at the same time. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41(4), 709–725.
Ruitenberg, C. W. (2014). “Plays well with others”: The engagement of philosophy of education with other educational research. Theory and Research in Education, 12(1), 88–97.
Schneider, M., & Buckley, J. (2002). What do parents want from schools? Evidence from the internet. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 133–144.
Schneider, M., Teske, P., & Marschall, M. (2002). Choosing schools: Consumer choice and the quality of American schools. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Statistics Norway. (2014). Facts about education in Norway 2015. https://www.ssb.no/en/utdanning/artikler-og-publikasjoner/facts-about-education-in-norway-2015. Accessed 1 Oct 2016.
Suissa, J. (2010). How comprehensive is your conception of the good? Liberal parents, difference and the common school. Educational Theory, 60(5), 587–600.
Swaine, L. (2012). The false right to autonomy in education. Educational Theory, 62(1), 107–124.
Swedish Institute. (2015). Facts about Sweden: Education. https://sweden.se/society/education-in-sweden/ Accessed 1 Oct 2016.
Undervisnings Ministeriet. (n.d.). Private schools. https://eng.uvm.dk/-/media/UVM/Filer/English/PDF/Fact-sheets/101221_Private_schools.ashx. Accessed 1 Oct 2016.
Walford, G. (2014). From city technology colleges to free schools: Sponsoring new schools in England. Research Papers in Education, 29(3), 315–329.
Warnick, B. R. (2012). Rethinking education for autonomy in pluralistic societies. Educational Theory, 62(4), 411–426.
West, A. (2014). Academies in England and independent schools (fristående skolor) in Sweden: Policy, privatisation, access and segregation. Research Papers in Education, 29(3), 330–350.
Whitty, G., Power, S., & Halpin, D. (1998). Devolution and choice in education. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Wilson, T. S. (2012). Negotiating public and private: Philosophical frameworks for school choice. In G. Miron, K. Welner, P. Hinchley, & W. Mathis (Eds.), Exploring the school choice universe: Evidence and recommendations. Charlotte: Information Age Press.
Wilson, T. S. (2016). Contesting the public school: Reconsidering charter schools as counterpublics. American Educational Research Journal, 53(4), 919–952.
Wilson, T. S., & Santoro, D. A. (2015). Philosophy pursued through empirical research: Introduction to the special issue. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 34(2), 115–124.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wilson, T.S. (2018). Charter Schools, Free Schools, and School Choice. In: Smeyers, P. (eds) International Handbook of Philosophy of Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72761-5_88
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72761-5_88
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72759-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72761-5
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)