ABSTRACT
What does all that talk about rights, duties and legitimate partiality mean for parents acting within rules which, if the argument of Part I is right, should be changed? Those rules permit parents to do more for their children than they have a right, let alone a duty, to do for them. But, given the choices currently available, it could still be that parents have the right, or even the duty, to opt out of the local comprehensive. Of course, whether you are justified in opting out is likely to depend on all kinds of specific details – specific to the child in question and to the schools between which you are choosing. It may be that some of you would be acting wrongly in sending your child to a school that it would be wrong for others to avoid. This could happen even if you all agreed not only about what the school rules should be but also about what would justify opting out here and now. For example, you might agree that one is justified in going private to avoid bullying, but have children with very different probabilities of being bullied. It will be for each parent to decide whether a given principle justifies the choice they make. I’ll be discussing whether the principle itself is justified.
