digamma.net - notes

Atrios writes:

Whatever the merits of any particular proposal falling under the general “school choice” umbrella otherwise, unless the transportation issue is addressed there isn’t any actual school choice for most people, aside from their choice of which school district to reside in (and, of course, depending on home prices not all choices are available to all people).

Huh?

I don’t know what rural areas Atrios is thinking of because, in the rural area where I live, that scenario describes the status quo WITHOUT vouchers pretty well. You have to go to school in the town where you live, and the only way to choose a different school is to move.

When I hear parents discussing the towns they live in, the foremost question is “How are the schools?” Why is it that, when comparing two towns that lie side-by-side or two houses separated by 5 miles or less, I never hear “How are the jobs?” or “How is the shopping?” Because the government lets you work and shop in a different town than the one you live in, but your home locks you into one school. Needless to say, this seriously distorts the housing market.

(Why it is evil for Microsoft to give you a web browser with its operating system but okay for a school to be “bundled” with buying or renting a house?)

Not every town out here has a high school. In towns without them, the town pays for its students to go to any of the surrounding towns’ high schools, public or private. This is, of course, the dreaded voucher system. And it seems to drive very few of the local children into sweatshop labor.

UPDATE (5:52 PM): That Eschaton entry has since disappeared. It included some complaints about how Blogger was deleting his stuff, so I’m not surprised. But I swear he wrote what I quoted.