July 23, 2010 11:39AM 

# Fordham Criticized Again 

By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) 

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[Great stuff by Jay Greene ](http://jaypgreene.com/2010/07/23/are-national-standards-conservative/)this morning on yesterday’s Fordham Institute [victory dance](http://article.nationalreview.com/438482/the-common-core-curriculum/chester-e-finn-jr-br-michael-j-petrilli?page=1). Greene rips into the notion that conservatives should support standardization of every American kid, and even dares attack Fordham’s calculation that on “the right” only about six government-loathing libertarians have fought national standards.

Perhaps most important, while [I explained](https://www.cato.org/2010/07/22/fordham-institute-1-education-0/) (yet again) why the Fordham folks and other big-government conservatives will never get the sustained high standards they want out of a government monopoly, Jay nailed the even more fundamental point:

> The real divide here is between people who think that policies are best when decisions are decentralized and choice and competition are enhanced versus people who think that there is a “right way” that should be imposed centrally and should constrain choice and competition.

Unfortunately for Fordham, whether we’re comparing the [U.S. to the Soviet economy](http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/01/soviet-growth-american-textbooks.html), or [educational freedom to government schooling](https://www.cato.org/pubs/articles/coulson_comparing_public_private_market_schools_jsc.pdf), choice and competition win every time. Every time, that is, except in political decisions like adopting national standards.

##### Related Tags 

[Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) 

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