American Education and the Dynamics of Choice

This insightful look at American education explores difficult but realistic solutions to the education dilemma. Focusing on parent/student choice and the privatization/deregulation of public schools, Rinehart and Lee suggest that the lack of these two vital ingredients is the root cause of poor school performance. Any reform effort within the government-controlled education monopoly will inevitably fail because the present system ignores basic laws of human behavior--people want to operate in their own best interest and value most that over which they have direct control. The authors set out to prove that increased choice and unencumbered competition among schools result in dramatic educational improvement. Writing for the professional educator and the general reader, Rinehart and Lee view the American educational system from a provocative and new perspective.

The book reveals many of the current problems with public schools and explores different types of choice systems. Rinehart and Lee achieve three main goals. They first demonstrate that public school systems consistently fail because of their failure to adhere to certain fundamental laws of human behavior. Second, they make a case that the current reform movement in education will fail or fall short of expectations. Finally, they propose challenging, realistic solutions that focus on educational choice and privatization of public schools. The authors point out that as a rule the more choice, the better. American Education and the Dynamics of Choice maintains that all public schools should be sold and parents should be given vouchers by the government permitting them to enroll their children in any private school they wish.

JAMES R. RINEHART is Professor of Economics and the Director of the Center for Economic Education at Francis Marion College in South Carolina. He has worked directly with public schools in an eleven-county area of South Carolina. Dr. Rinehart has published many articles in academic journals and magazines and has written several monographs.

JACKSON F. LEE, JR. is Professor in the School of Education at Francis Marion College and the Director of its Elementary Science Leadership Program. Dr. Lee is an educational consultant and the author/coauthor of 17 articles and 11 instructional manuals. His previous book, Providing for Individual Differences in Student Learning, was co-authored with K. Wayne Pruitt.