According to reports, Rudy Giuliani spoke at the Manhattan Institute the other day and touched on the subject of education and school choice. He said something like, it’s a civil right. I am confused about what he meant. Is he saying public education is a civil right? Is he saying school choice is a civil right?

He also said that some GOP members are not fond of the idea of school choice because they’re afraid it will negatively affect their relatively good suburban schools. Is school choice aiming to cross city lines and bring students from the city to the suburbs and maybe vice versa? If so, don’t suburban parents have a right to be worried that their suburban school systems might be damaged by this new idea, just as the city school systems were damaged by yesterday’s new idea–busing? Why don’t we concentrate on improving discipline and curricula everywhere instead of shuffling kids around? At any rate, advocates need to give us a lot more information about what school choice entails, rather than just invoking it as a panacea.