Reason‘s Ape Shall Not Harm Ape looks at “how we got from school monkeys to Heather Has Two Mommies,” as explained by David Boaz, in Unnatural Selection:
How does this battle [the Scopes Monkey Trial] relate to school choice? It illustrates the problem with a one-size-fits-all monopoly school system. Lots of Tennesseans wanted their children taught the Biblical story of creation. But there were others, probably a minority, who wanted their children to learn the scientific consensus in biology class. Because the school system was a state monopoly, they couldn’t both get what they wanted.A state monopoly on electricity generation may be economically inefficient, but it’s not likely to generate political conflict over moral values. But the state education monopoly is something else again. Education deals with topics that many people feel strongly about, and a monopoly requires them to fight over whose values will prevail in the single school system.
What sorts of conflicts can arise? Parents, taxpayers, and other voters can disagree over school prayer, ethnic history, the Pledge of Allegiance, school uniforms, gay teachers, teaching tolerance, drug testing — or evolution vs. creation.
In a market system, customers can choose from a wide variety of options. Don’t like steak? Eat at a vegetarian restaurant. Don’t like traffic? Live in a bucolic neighborhood.
In a political system, like the school system, however, one group “wins,” and the losers are stuck with products or services they don’t like. Different preferences become the subject of endless political, legislative, and judicial squabbles.
Several years ago, New York City saw a battle royal over the values to be taught to the city’s 1 million schoolchildren. The ruling establishment tried to impose the multicultural, pro-gay “Children of the Rainbow” curriculum on all schools. A backlash erupted, leading to the removal of the city’s school superintendent. Emboldened by popular opposition to the Rainbow Curriculum, the Catholic Church teamed up with Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition to try to take over the city’s 32 community school boards.
The cultural elite fought back, pulling together a coalition including the United Federation of Teachers, key supporters of liberal Mayor David Dinkins, People for the American Way, and gay activists. The two groups fought bitterly for the right to impose their own moral and cultural values on New York’s million schoolchildren. In the end, it was a draw, and schoolchildren continued to be pawns in a political struggle.