CON: Give parents more power

By JOE MCTIGHE

For Congressional Quarterly

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, meaningful choice is in the mind of the selector. When it comes to schools, the selectors, of course, are parents, a child's primary educators.

For many parents, the options already at play within public education constitute meaningful choice, but others can find such choice only outside the realm of public schools.

A growing number of parents, for example, desperately desire schools whose primary purpose is to provide youngsters with a sound moral and spiritual education - schools that touch the soul and call children to a life of love.

Private schools are the only schools we have that can address the religious development of children - a sphere beyond the proper reach of public education.

And then there are the parents whose children are trapped in chronically failing and sometimes unsafe schools. They don't have the money to move to communities where the schools are better, and they don't have the time to see if the latest promise of improvement proves any more trustworthy than its predecessors.

For those parents, an immediate alternative would be neighborhood private schools where high expectations, caring communities and remarkable records of success are the rule.

The same rationale that drives proposals for tax reductions, Pell grants and Hope scholarships to help low- and middle-income students attend the public, private or religious college of their choice applies to K-12 education.

How can one argue that aid to the parents of a 12th-grader is taboo while the same aid a year later is laudable?

We need a unified plan of parent aid in America - one that guarantees meaningful choice to needy parents across all grade levels.

There are some who say that choice within the public school system is sufficient. They consider such choice the silver bullet of school reform.

But let's face it: The difference between the P.S. 8 and P.S. 9 is often inconsequential. And while some charter schools offer parents genuine alternatives, the truth is that many are nothing more than standard public school clones in a prettied-up package.

A single system of government schooling cannot possibly meet everyone's needs. Fortunately, our country is blessed by a rich diversity of schools that collectively serve a noble purpose: the education of our nation's children.

Why not a comprehensive program of school choice that truly respects and promotes the right of all parents to choose the kind of education their children will receive?

Joe McTighe is executive director of the Council for American Private Education.