It's terrific to see private school choice expanding nationwide ("The Year of School Choice," Review & Outlook, July 5). Indeed, it's even better than you suggest because to get real improvements, school choice doesn't need to be accompanied by teacher-compensation reforms and higher standards. It will give us those things.
Public schools cannot be sustainably reformed because they are controlled through politics, and the people most motivated to be involved in education politicking are public-school employees. They naturally fight efforts to hold them accountable. That's why politics must be taken out of the equation, which school choice does. It forces teachers and administrators to satisfy parents, to compete for and earn customers, rather than use political force to get their pay. And that is the key to constant improvement.
Neal P. McCluskey
Cato Institute
Washington
We typically expect that government monopolies will be horrendously inefficient—and the education system is a classic example. Allowing choice breaks up the education monopoly and spurs competition between schools to attract students. This bottom-up approach of demonopolizing education is far more promising than the usual top-down government approach of throwing ever-increasing piles of cash at the problem.
Toban Wiebe
Arlington, Va.
For the sake of our country's future, we must save the motivated students in underperforming public schools. Charter schools and school vouchers are among the best available options to give these students a choice to improve their educations now.
Public-school advocates insist that the motivated students be retained in public schools in order to motivate the unmotivated students. That rarely happens. It is more likely that the unmotivated mass of students will hold back the motivated ones, whose higher achievement reflects badly on the unmotivated students. Friendship and inclusion in a neighborhood group may come at the price of lowering a student's achievement to the lower level of the group. Rather than being admired role models, high achievers may be social outcasts in public high schools.
In any event, public schools with honors or advanced-placement classes segregate the motivated students away from the regular classes dominated by the unmotivated students. Public magnet schools also segregate the motivated students to other campuses or even to part of a regular school campus.
Choice by vouchers and admission to charter schools are other opportunities for the motivated. The movie "Waiting for 'Superman'" accurately portrays the plight of the motivated student in America.
Fred Fraley
Dallas
Many noneducators seem to believe that a good education may be achieved much like popcorn: Apply heat for a short time and a fully formed blossom appears instantly. A good education grows one year on top of another. When the foundation is defective, the subsequent education becomes a house of cards. Teacher-performance accountability must begin in the early grades and persist through graduation.
Bob Settles
Palm Coast, Fla.
