What must be challenged is the prevalent belief that education is some sort of “natural right”—in effect, a free gift of nature. There are no such free gifts. But it is in the interests of statism to foster this delusion—in order to throw a smokescreen over the issue of whose freedom must be sacrificed to pay for such “free gifts.”

As a result of the fact that education has been tax-supported for such a long time, most people find it difficult to project an alternative.

- Nathaniel Branden. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966).