Ep. 248 Jacob Hornberger Says Libertarians Should Oppose School Vouchers
Jacob Hornberger, founder of the Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF), makes the forceful case that libertarians shouldn’t support “school choice” in the form of government vouchers for private schools. Bob plays devil’s advocate and raises several points that libertarian proponents of vouchers make.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- The YouTube video of this interview.
- Hornberger’s article arguing school vouchers are anti-libertarian.
- Milton Friedman’s talk “Say ‘No’ to Intolerance.”
- Sheldon Richman’s book, Separating School and State.
- Bob Murphy Show ep. 105 with Corey DeAngelis (who is for school vouchers).
- Madeleine Albright says killings hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children through sanctions was worth it.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
Great episode. You should contrast Hornberger’s more idealistic libertarian viewpoint with Pete Quinones’s moving away from pure AnCapism. I would love for Bob and Pete to talk about the realities that hit us during Covid and how the pure theories we all know and love got shaken down a bit. Thanks.
I favor the complete separation of education and state. I want to eliminate monopolistic government’s involvement in education, root and branch.
However, to my surprise I was just elected to Nevada’s state legislature and a bill to copy Arizona’s K-12 ESA program was just submitted in Nevada (where we have the 2nd worst schools in the nation). The vote is currently tied. The Democrats and their ideological/sexual/racializing indoctrinating teachers unions oppose the bill. The Republicans support it. My vote will be deciding.
Which way should I vote? Obviously, I spend every day in the legislature railing on the evils of state education (my colleagues love me). But which way should I vote?
interesting how Hornberger says, “it’s impossible to convince people to be libertarians” at the beginning of this episode then goes on to insist the only form of legitimate libertarian advocacy is to convince people to be libertarians.
The only question that really matters regarding school choice is whether or not it helps to promote libertarianism. Well, private schools working on the voucher system deliver far better educational performance at half the cost. That doesn’t go unnoticed, and provides valuable data points towards a libertarian vision, allowing people to see the light in a steps rather than taking one giant leap. What better way to convince people if you can’t convince them with pure arguments?
As to the argument that school choice will lead to state capture of public schools – okay, prove it. No data was given to support this claim. Has enrollment in pure public schools declined?
Jacob made some valid points but was extremely repetitious. He repeated his slavery reform analogy (which he’s apparently infatuated with) at least three times. Neither he nor Bob faced up to the fact that abolishing government support of education simply ain’t gonna happen – at least not in the US. The whole podcast could have been done in 2 minutes.