The paper uses Murray Rothbard's reconstruction of utility and welfare economics to critically analyze current neoclassical justifications for government intervention in the market for educational services and the prospects for meaningful reform through partial privatization of educational services using school choice and educational vouchers. This analysis, which is in the Austrian tradition, implies that it is public funding, not public provision, that is the ultimate cause of the myriad problems within the public school system of the United States. These problems, which are predictable, unintended consequences of tax funding, constitute the current education crisis. Since proposed voucher systems retain the inappropriate form of funding, the reforms will, in the long run, be unsuccessful; the tastes and preferences of those who ultimately control the use of tax dollars will still continue to drive educational policy.
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