March 8, 2010 10:02AM # “I would like to see a higher percentage of children educated in the state sector” –? By [Andrew J. Coulson](https://www.cato.org/people/andrew-coulson) --- SHARE The mystery man quoted in the title is none other than [David Cameron, head of the British Conservative party](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1256260/Tories-offer-private-schools-state-system.html#ixzz0hbDjrhyQ). It isn’t that Cameron likes the [ineffeciency](https://www.cato.org/pubs/articles/coulson_comparing_public_private_market_schools_jsc.pdf), [social conflict, and unresponsiveness to parents](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=7040) that often characterize state schooling. It’s that he “would like to see… choice and autonomy and diversity in the state sector.” I would like to see winged-gazelles, sunny winters in Seattle, and a brilliant remake of *The Thin Man* series. We’ll both be waiting a good long time. Surely the Conservative party has a competent economist who could explain to Mr. Cameron [*why* state schools tend to lack the features we take for granted in the free enterprise sector](http://books.google.com/books?id=3xi49dmYw0wC&dq=market+education+the+unknown+history&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=vhuVS6-3M4OosgOYxsX8Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=&f=false), and that by nationalizing more of Britain’s independent schools he would simply shrink the number that enjoy the freedoms and incentives responsible for efficiency, diversity, and responsiveness to families. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).