Friedman framed poor children’s education as a charity matter

Evidence

Speaking to an audience at a convention of the American Legislative Exchange Council in 2006, Friedman said, “The ideal would be to have parents control and pay for their school’s education, just as they pay for their food, their clothing, and their housing.” Acknowledging that indigent parents might be unable to afford their children’s education in the same way that they might suffer food or housing insecurity, Friedman added, “Those should be handled as charity problems, not educational problems.” — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 753

Categorization

• CANDY: A single devastating Friedman quote recasting education as a consumer good with poverty as ‘charity’ — memorable and tellable in a conversation.
• DEFINE: Illuminates the free-market ‘school choice’ framing as resting on treating education purely as a private consumer service.