THE PROGRESSIVE CASE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE.

Ezra has encouraged me to jump in to what has become an energetic debate on vouchers for poor urban public schools, so here I go. Quick run-down: Megan McArdle seethes with rage over rich liberals who essentially practice "school choice" by picking up and moving to expensive suburbs, but who don't support vouchers so poor parents can also get their kids out of bad schools. Ezra responds that vouchers aren't the answer, because they won't do away with concentrated poverty, which he considers the root of educational inequality. Kevin Carey swings in to say they're both wrong: Schools that educate poor kids can be great schools in spite of concentrated poverty, and school choice is okay when choice is confined to the public system. Carey also takes a jab at the Prospect for prioritizing longterm poverty fixes and downplaying the importance of education reform. To this, I'd only respond that there is a variety of opinions on education at TAP, and that I, for one, have argued again and again for serious attention to be paid to our schools as engines of equality, and will continue to do so. But back to the issue at hand. Kevin is right that private vouchers aren't a systemic fix for urban education. As he writes, "Voucherizing a whole city like DC wouldn't work. There aren't enough good private schools to teach all those students in the short run, and -- more importantly -- there wouldn't be enough in the long run." Nor is busing city kids en masse to the suburbs a great solution, since that would be unworkable politically and logistically. Poor kids certainly do deserve top-flight schools within their own communities. And although it's not necessary for those school buildings to be race and class integrated for children to receive a good education within them, it would be preferable if they were. Integrated schools do a better job of readying children for the workforce, tend to have more resources at their disposal in terms of money and parental investment, and perhaps most importantly, teach kids tolerance and comfort around people different from themselves.