When education historian Diane Ravitch dropped her influential endorsement of school choice, she cited its alleged failure to meet federally mandated accountability standards. On closer inspection, however, her reversal reflects a failure to understand that school choice advocates had a much different goal: to make the schools reflect consumer preferences, not standards dictated by federal bureaucrats.

Gregory M. Dempster is Elliott Professor of Economics and Business at Hampden-Sydney College, and a graduate student in Entrepreneurship at the Darden School of Business, University of Virgina.
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