Opinion: City Schools Reform Must Include Parental Choice

(June 29) -- New York City's schools are quiet for the next several weeks as more than 1 million students take summer break. But while children are at home, parents wonder if and when K-12 education will ever turn around in the nation's largest school district.

At least with New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein, parents and children have a chance.

This past school year, Klein made the bold move of announcing he would close 19 high schools as part of his scheme to shut down large, failing schools in favor of opening smaller ones. This is a good start, particularly since at some of the city's older high schools fewer than one in two students earns a diploma. These schools simply don't deserve to stay open.

Unfortunately, misguided protests and lawsuits have stopped Klein dead in his tracks. The United Federation of Teachers recently won a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court to stop the school closures, and so the 19 failing schools will remain open at least another year. That's too bad for the children and families who want a better life and better school options.

Klein is also trying to open new charter schools and offer more public school choice to parents. And, according to a new study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, these kind of new, small--school environments work best for children. They graduate at higher rates than their peers -- a finding confirmed by a recent report by the U.S. Department of Education showing that children in the D.C. voucher program are 12 percent more likely to graduate than children who didn't get a school choice.

Thanks to the obstruction of the teachers unions and their allies, however, all of Klein's laudable efforts are being fought at every turn. It seems that unions are more concerned about job security than the many children who don't even bother to show up for class because there is no real learning going on. Instead of doing everything they can to increase graduation rates, they seem more interested in trying to prove that the 19 failing high schools aren't really high schools but community centers. Ridiculous.

The chancellor knows better than anyone the power of the teachers unions. That's why he should take the next logical step: offering New York City parents both public and private school choice.

New York taxpayers already spend an eye-popping $16,678 per student, enough money to pay for tuition at parochial schools or cover much of the tuition at private schools with better student outcomes.

If 5 percent of the New York parents took a voucher worth $10,000, it would eliminate the projected deficit in the city's teacher pension fund. Moreover, competition would force teachers unions to concentrate on learning or risk losing children to neighboring charter, parochial or private schools that put students first.

For a society to be successful, children and families -- not buildings -- must be at the center of every policy decision. A child is the most precious gift to any parent -- rich or poor -- and parents must have the freedom to choose a school that works for their child, whether that school is a New York charter school or a private school.

Klein is serious about creating a better New York education model, and we should support him. But if he really wants to triumph in the long run, he should close down every failing school, build as many new schools as he can and work to allow every parent in the city to choose the best school for his or her child.

Robert Enlow is president and CEO of the Foundation for Educational Choice, the school choice legacy foundation of Milton and Rose Friedman.


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