ABSTRACT
Indeed, the choice between “equal education” and “equal educational opportu nity” is itself substantially determined by the choice of aims, since the most obvious reason for lowering one’s sights from equality perse to mere equality of opportunity is that the kind of thing we aim to distribute fairly is something which cannot be distributed universally. Most notably, if one takes the central goal of education to lie beyond the immediate results of instruction, in something like the broadening of life options or the enhancement of socio-economic status, then one will almost certainly speak of “equal educational opportunity,” and take its substance to be something like the equalization of life prospects or prospects of middle class status, or, more modestly and plausibly, the equalization of opportunity to get an education that will improve those prospects. This latter, more modest notion of equal educational opportunity may itself be understood in at least two ways: as education that makes all children equally likely to enjoy those forms of academic success that facilitate the attainment of the desired social or economic rewards (this is a prospect-regarding form of equality of opportunity), or education which provides all children with the same opportunities or means to achieving such academic success (this is a form of means-regarding equality of opportunity).3
