The Case for School Choice

"Defenders of the educational status quo frequently ridicule school choice as both misguided and hopelessly ethereal. They consider the idea of allowing parents and students to choose among schools that compete for their money -- with vouchers aiding the needy -- a dangerous hallucination.

But the universal school choice ... already thrives here. American colleges and universities operate within the very framework school reformers envision. Choice, competition, accountability and quality are routine beyond high school.
" ... Collegiate choice is not exotic. It is the norm. Educational
reformers simply want to replicate this model of variety, competition
and accountability from America's high school quads down to its grammar
school sandboxes.

Somehow this straightforward message gets lost. School choice advocates, with good hearts and sharp minds, sometimes hinder themselves by allowing teachers unionists and their comrades to frame the debate. ...

Education reformers should demand that apologists for today's ghastly system answer one simple question: If school choice works for America's college kids, why is it no good for kindergartners?"



Deroy Murdock is a syndicated columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service and a contributing editor with National Review Online (nationalreview.com).