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Essay Plan - Should we Prohibit Private Schools
Contemporary Political Philosophy (POL2090)
Newcastle University
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Should we prohibit Private Schools – Essay Plan
Introduction
- Importance of equality of opportunity in a democratic society – equality of schooling is required to get as close to this as possible – only possibly with solely state schools
- Education as positional good – value depends on the level consumed relative to everyone else
- Equality of opportunity doesn’t lead to equality of education – education is more than academics – bedtime stories, nurture etc – Swift
- Formal and legal equality of opportunity – this isn’t enough – in the basic structure you need to close the gap between rich and poor as much as possible so that class, religion don’t affect your opportunities in later life
- Swift 2002 - 7% children go to private schools – more than 20% of those at university and 50% of those at Oxford and Cambridge
- Rawls – school system to even out class barriers
Paragraph 1 – Importance of Diversity
Anderson 2007 - -Positions of responsibility and leadership – in order to fit with democratic conception of their role to accurately respond to people from all sectors of society and serve everyone’s interests – must be drawn from all sectors of society – diverse members must be educated together to develop competence in respectful intergroup integration - -Diversity contributes to creating an elite – not competing with meritocratic criteria – diversity when a group works together across sectional lines - -Segregation and group stereotypes generate knowledge deficits on the part of the advantaged and how their ignorance and incompetence puts others at a disadvantage Satz 2007 - Some aspects of citizen’s competence can be achieved by individuals other competencies (tolerance, mutual understanding and respect) are group achievements best accomplished through the presence of diverse individuals - Society whose leaders come narrowly from one social group will generally do a poor job in representing the interests of the diverse members of the society - Compelling evidence that diversity is centrally important to preparing students to function in a heterogeneous society ARGUMENTS AGAINST Daniels 1978 - Meritocracy doesn’t care whether people are meritorious because of their natural born talents or were born with drive or because their parents invested huge effort in developing their talents – just wants productive workers –BUT Meritocracy assumes that the structure of job opportunities is determined by the market in conjunction with state regulations implementing other principles of justice – argue that private schools are blocking the principle of equality of opportunity -
Paragraph 2 – Segregation
Satz 2007 - Poor children are more likely to attend crowded and poorly-equipped schools with less qualified teachers than the children of more affluent families
- Education system that separates the children of the poor and minorities from those of the wealthy and middle class cannot be adequate for such a society
- Segregated schools tend to freeze a student’s economic and social position at the level of his/her parents, prevent understanding across social groups and undercut the democratic idea of civic equality
- Prevalence of separate schools for rich and poor undercuts the primary lesson of democracy – all social equals Rawls 1972 page 72 “those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system” -Importance of preventing excessive accumulations of property and wealth and of maintaining equal opportunities of education for all – chances to acquire cultural knowledge and skills should not depend upon one’s class position and so the school system whether public or private should be designed to even out class barriers Swift 2002
- If some have more other must have less – stopping some getting better chances than others is not levelling down it is positively benefiting those who would otherwise be worse off
- Those sympathetic to private school – insist on the importance of individual freedom
- parents shouldn’t be free to do whatever they like for their kids – parents’ freedom must be constrained by a framework of justice by the duties we have not to harm others - private education is unjust – failing in our duty to treat others justly
- Kid sent to a school full of comfortably off children from supportive middle-class homes may indeed do better than she would at one where many of her classmates lived in poverty and struggled with problems at home
- Buying access to a school containing the kinds of children who presence will improve their children’s results Anderson 2004
- Peer group effects objection – private schools segregate the most talented and motivated students from the lesser so thereby depriving the latter of the stimulation and achievement ethos provided by the former
- Parental voice objection – private schools separate the parents who care most about education and have the most time and resources to improve educational quality from the state schools attended by everyone else therefore reducing the quality of state schools
- Solidarity objection – private schools undermine social solidarity by segregating students along socially divisive lines of wealth and talent ARGUMENTS AGAINST
- Parents and children who value education much more than the median voter would not be allowed to pursue their conception of good through the expenditure of external resources – Anderson 2004
Paragraph 3 – Education as positional good
Anderson 2007
- Education is not an intrinsic good for the individual but an important instrumental good with positional features – opens up access to the most rewarding careers and
Essay Plan - Should we Prohibit Private Schools
Module: Contemporary Political Philosophy (POL2090)
University: Newcastle University
