Economist Hirschman’s Argument Against Private Schools and Vouchers

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent post “Economist Hirschman’s Argument Against Private Schools and Vouchers”[Hake (2013)]. The abstract reads:

********************************************
ABSTRACT: Bernard Cleyet (2013) in his PhysLrnR post “Another argument against private schools and vouchers,” called attention to Malcolm Gladwell’s (2013) New Yorker review titled “The Gift of Doubt: Albert O. Hirschman and the power of failure” http://nyr.kr/19Hj0e7. This is a review of Jeremy Adleman’s (2013) Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman http://bit.ly/18nlsFa.

Hirschman’s argument against private schools and vouchers is contained in this passage from Gladwell (paraphrased; my CAPS):

"Hirschman quoted the conservative economist Milton Friedman who argued that SCHOOL VOUCHERS SHOULD REPLACE THE CURRENT PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM, writing ‘Parents could express their views about schools directly, by withdrawing their children from one school and sending them to another.’

Hirschman commented: ‘a near perfect example of the ECONOMIST'S BIAS IN FAVOR OF EXIT AND AGAINST VOICE: In the first place, Friedman considers withdrawal or exit as the ‘direct’ way of expressing one's unfavorable views of an organization. A person less well trained in economics might naively suggest that the direct way of expressing views is to express them! Secondly, the decision to voice one’s views and efforts to make them prevail are contemptuously referred to by Friedman as a resort to ‘cumbrous political channels.’ But what else is the political, and indeed the democratic, process than the digging, the use, and hopefully the slow improvement of these very channels?”
********************************************

To access the complete 8 kB post please click on http://yhoo.it/14G8T2j .

Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Links to Articles: http://bit.ly/a6M5y0
Links to Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) Labs: http://bit.ly/9nGd3M
Academia: http://bit.ly/a8ixxm
Blog: http://bit.ly/9yGsXh
GooglePlus: http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE
Google Scholar: http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3
Twitter: http://bit.ly/juvd52
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/14uycpW

“Even when our trust is heavily placed in them, reasoning and education cannot easily prove powerful enough to bring us actually to do
anything, unless in addition we train our Soul by experience for the course on which we would set her; for if we do not, when the time
comes for action she will undoubtedly find herself impeded.”
- Michel de Montaigne (quoted by Adelman’s (2013) in his frontispiece


REFERENCES [URL's shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 30 June 2013.]
Hake, R.R. 2013. “Economist Hirschman's Argument Against Private Schools and Vouchers,” online on the OPEN! Net-Gold archives at http://yhoo.it/14G8T2j. Post of 30 Jun 2013 07:04:51-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being distributed to various discussion lists.