KOL419 | Soho Forum Debate vs. Corey Deangelis: School Choice

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 419.

This is my Soho Forum debate held Aug. 21, 2023, in Manhattan, against Corey DeAngelis, of the American Federation for Children, moderated by Gene Epstein. I defended the resolution "Today’s school-choice movement in the U.S. is worthy of support by libertarians…" (taking the negative). Oxford debate rules applied which meant that whoever changed the most minds won. My side went from about 10 to 23 percentage points, gaining about 13; Corey went from about 45 to 64%, gaining about 19, so he won. I was pleased that we had an informative and civil debate about an important issue. (This is my second Soho debate; the first was KOL364 | Soho Forum Debate vs. Richard Epstein: Patent and Copyright Law Should Be Abolished.) My discussion notes are appended below. See also Reason.com article with video; Reason.com article with podcast.

Results

Today's school-choice movement in the U.S. is worthy of support by libertarians.

                          Pre                 Post                Change

Yes                   44.90%           64.29%            19.39%

No                    10.20%            23.47%            13.27%

Undecided   44.90%           12.24%            -32.65%

https://www.youtube.com/live/xZF-lT_1pag?si=nJVtVVz6FKsQ4wjv

Related:

Comments on the Youtube livestream

Various comments on twitter: here, here, here, here.

Rose City Catholics Fight for LGBTQ Rights—and Start a War With Portland’s Archbishop (July 5, 2023)

Educational Scholarship Accounts

Lew Rockwell, Education and the Election

William Anderson, The Trouble with Vouchers

Jacob Hornberger, “School Vouchers Are Anti-Libertarian,” Hornberger’s Blog (Future of Freedom Foundation) (July 5, 2022)

———, “More on Anti-Libertarian School Vouchers,” Hornberger’s Blog (Future of Freedom Foundation) (July 6, 2022)

Bob Murphy Show ep 105: Corey DeAngelis Makes the Case for School Choice

Jacob Hornberger Makes the Case AGAINST School Vouchers (with Bob Murphy — Bob Murphy show ep. 248)

Tom Woods Show: Ep. 2325 Corey DeAngelis and Connor Boyack: The State’s Schools Are Beyond Repair

Tom Woods Show: Ep. 2211 Corey DeAngelis on the School Choice Movement

KOL112 | Jack Criss Interview on the Voucher System (1989)

Kinsella, “Negates freedom of choice,” Letter to the Editor, The Morning Advocate (Dec. 21, 1988), and related correspondence related to the voucher system and school choice, 1988–89 (Note: Written in a more Randian “Objectivist” phase, and before I came to oppose voucher systems.)

DISCUSSION NOTES

Resolved: Today’s school-choice movement in the U.S. is worthy of support by libertarians

A Soho Forum Debate

Corey DeAngelis vs. Stephan Kinsella

Aug 21, 2023

The Sheen Center, 18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012

MAIN PRESENTATION – NOTES

[15 MIN]

So there are many ways to explain why intellectual property is illegitimate

Oh wait, that’s the wrong debate

Resolved: Today’s school-choice movement in the U.S. is worthy of support by libertarians.

To answer this question, we need to understand what libertarians should support, and what “Today’s school-choice movement” is

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that believes in individual rights to self-ownership and to private property ownership.

In short, we oppose “aggression”

So libertarians oppose a host of state laws and policies since they themselves commit aggression

Such as taxation, war, the drug war, the central bank, and intellectual property (see, IP keeps coming up)