ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the question of why people do not have school choice without financial penalty. Historical accidents and that intention-ality, along with some anti-Catholicism, led to educational finance monopoly (EFM). The essential reason for dwelling on the results of historical accidents, and the corresponding social inertia that those accidents created, is not idle curiosity. Ends-means confusion is, in many respects, the ultimate victory of EFM's defenders employing social inertia, and the ultimate challenge confronting school choice advocates. In order to succeed, political strategy in favor of school choice requires a deep understanding of why people are stuck in the quagmire they are in. Devotees of school choice, if they want to avoid enthusiasm-killing frustration, must realize that even an egregiously bad policy will not change by itself. Local control of local schools resting on greatly homogeneous communities meant, among other things, that those schools possessed common and shared values and behavioral norms and expectations.
