We need a free market in education

In 1964, Leonard Read wrote a powerful essay celebrating the free market in education. Read, who founded FEE nearly two decades prior to promote individual and economic freedom, recognized the ways in which government control of the K-12 education sector constrained choice and prevented diversity and abundance of learning options.

In “The Case for the Free Market in Education,” Read asked us to imagine that education had been freed from government interference and was instead “restored to the free, competitive market.”

“What would happen?” wondered Read. “No one knows!” he answered.

Rather than a flaw, Read recognized that the unknown of what would inevitably emerge from this restoration would be its strongest feature.