The Case for Parental Choice

<p><b>This work makes a richly humanitarian case for parental school choice seeking to advance social justice and respect the dignity of parents-especially those on the margins.</b></p><p>For decades arguments in favor of school choice have largely been advanced on the basis of utility or outcome rather than social justice and human dignity. <i>The Case for Parental Choice: God Family and Educational Liberty</i> offers a compelling and humanitarian alternative. This volume contains an edited collection of essays by John E. Coons a visionary legal scholar and ardent supporter of what is perhaps best described as a social justice case for parental school choice. Few have written more prodigiously or prophetically about the need to give parents-particularly poor parents-power over their children's schooling. Coons has been an advocate of school choice for over sixty years and indeed remains one of the most articulate proponents of a case for school choice that promotes both low-income parents and civic engagement as opposed to mere efficiency or achievement. His is a distinctively Catholic voice that brings powerful normative arguments to debates that far too often get bogged down in disputes about cost savings and test scores.</p><p>The essays collected herein treat a wide variety of topics including the relationship between school choice and individual autonomy; the implications of American educational policy for social justice equality and community; the impact of public schooling on low-income families; and the religious implications of school choice. Together these pieces make for a wide-ranging and morally compelling case for parental choice in children's schooling.</p>