The conception of social justice held by many, perhaps most, citizens of the Western democracies is that of equality of opportunity. Exactly what that kind of equality requires is a contested issue, but many would refer to the metaphor of 'leveling the playing field,' or setting the initial conditions in the competition for social goods so as to give all, regardless of their backgrounds, an equal chance at achievement. A central institution to implement that field leveling is education, meaning education that is either publicly financed or made available to all at affordable costs. Currently the political institution of choice is democracy, which is implemented by competitive political parties, ones that may freely form and enter that competition, representing different interest groups in the polity.

It is thus incumbent upon a social scientist who is concerned with inequality to ask: Will democracy succeed in organizing political competition around the issue of public education, so as to implement, over time, policies that will engender equality of opportunity? This publication asks whether the central contemporary measure of social justice will be achieved through the main contemporary political mechanism through its manner of financing the educational institution.