Abstract

This chapter suggests that answers to the question of who should make decisions about children's education depend on two kinds of consideration: consequentalist and non-consequentialist. Among the relevant consequences are educational goods – the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions conducive to flourishing – and distributive values. It identifies six educational goods and three distributive values and suggest that, from a consequentialist perspective, the answer to the question of who should make which educational decisions depends on who, in the particular context, is most likely to produce the best outcomes with respect to those goods and values. Parents’ rights, and children's rights, can be understood as non-consequentialist considerations that constrain the application of the consequentialist approach, and may offer different answers to the question.