As Joanne Jacobs reports, recent polls, even by the educational establishment, show that support for vouchers is gaining ground, while opposition to it is shrinking. This, despite the frenzied, near-hysterical efforts of the deep-pocket elite to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about freedom of choice. The latest efforts by opponents of freedom of choice have been to use Nativist laws from over 100 years ago. Class act, guys. Shame on you for calling yourselves "liberal" or "progressive," though.

A month or two ago, my friend Ara suggested that I believe private schools have some magical quality that public schools lack, and suggested that we discuss it at more length. Well, now's as good a time as any. Maybe this can help those who know little about the School Choice movement to start to really understand its arguments.

What, exactly, is the case for School Choice?

In about four days, my dear son Jacob starts kindergarten. He will be attending school in one of the most mediocre school districts in the State of Michigan. Oh, it's not as bad as, say, the Detroit public schools. But it'll never be on anyone's list of great schools.

We wanted to send him to one of the much better Catholic schools. Problem: I don't make enough money for that right now. We also wanted to home school, but we have the same problem: right now, his mom has to work, and so do I. Our only choice is the "free" public school down the street.

If you listen to the old guard, they'd say that improving the school is up to me. But let's be honest, kids: that's a steaming pile of horse manure. For my entire lifetime we've seen that philosophy at work in countless schools across the nation. To quote the late Jay Ward:

Rocky: "But that trick never works!"
Bullwinkle: "This time for sure!"

I've worked in public education, and I know the score. Federal and state regulations have those places locked up tight as a drum. As a former dues-paying member of the NEA who's worked as a Teacher's Aide, I can also tell you that the union rules have everything sewn up even tighter than the state and federal governments do. School boards? Don't make me laugh. What little power they have that hasn't been usurped by the Federal and State authorities, and hasn't been hogtied by union contracts, boils down to which textbooks will be bought and where and how to spend construction funds. They are, in most localities, almost completely helpless to affect change, and are subject to the same kind of petty bickering as all purely political organizations.

So let's be blunt here: my son is going to be enrolled in a shit school. And there's not a God Damned Thing I can do about it right now.

That, my friends, is what you're telling me. You don't think I deserve a choice. My Son needs to be sacrified to your ideology. Hey, thanks much. Don't think I don't appreciate it. I'm ever so glad you're there, fighting the good fight against giving us a choice.

But let's just be honest and admit what you're doing, okay? You aren't fighting "to save public education," becuase the kids get educated one way or the other. Nor are you fighting an evil Religious Right monster trying to make your children worship Jesus--that monster exists only in your imagination.

What you've been fighting is giving people like me, who right now cannot afford anything else, the ability to have ultimate control over our child's education.

That you do it in the name of protecting public education is a sick joke.

Of course there are great public schools, and of course there are mediocre private ones. On the other hand, there are no truly horrible private schools to speak of, and that points to why Choice is so powerful: no one's going to put their money or their kids voluntarily into a lousy school. But when government takes our money but denies us free choice on what to do with it, that's what we're often forced to do.

It astonishes me that, in the early 21st century, anyone still has to explain this. Choice promotes competition and empowers consumers. The School Choice movement is not about the "superiority" of private schools, or religious schools. It most certainly is not an attempt to destroy public education. Nor is it an attempt to force religious indoctrination on children. It's about empowering parents. And that's all it is.

Power for parents doesn't come from joining the PTA. It doesn't come from going to school board meetings. It doesn't come from volunteering to help out at bake sales. It comes from one thing and one thing only:

Being able look a school administrator right in the eye and say, "This changes, or my kid and I are out of here."

It's as much about empowerment as it is about anything else. So thank you--thank you so very much--for working for years on end to deny us that one simple choice. Thank you for voting to keep us locked into a bad school whether we like it or not. For telling us that our only way out is to move to a better district, or come up with tuition we can't afford right now. Or join the PTA and help sell cookies when asked. Thank you, thank you for "saving" us from the ability to decide to leave if we don't like the service we're getting.

We have more power over our phone service than you're willing to give us over our child's education. I don't claim that just giving me a choice will guarantee my child a superior education. But I'd like to have that chance. Wouldn't you?