It’s time for a comeback of educational freedom

Opinion

Discussion

August 16, 2009

Thank you for your recent column “Education reform should be government’s top job.” Oklahoma parents should have the right to choose the safest and best schools for their children, whether those schools are public or private.

Just because government provides a service doesn’t mean government has to produce all of it. We see this with Medicaid dollars flowing to private hospitals, with B-52 bombers being built by private contractors, and with Pell Grants being used at private Oklahoma colleges. And since we already have school choice for these 18-year-olds, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have it for 17-year-olds.

Your reference to Belgium and other European countries was spot-on. Indeed, Dr. Charles Glenn, a professor at Boston University’s School of Education, reminds us that “the right of parents to choose the schools that children attend is an internationally accepted norm. Every country in the world except North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba allows parents to choose schools. Every western democracy except the United States provides public funding to support those choices.”

The good news is the U.S. is starting to move toward school choice. There are now 25 school choice programs — mostly vouchers and tax credits — in 15 states plus the District of Columbia. Tax-credit legislation will be introduced in the 2010 Oklahoma legislative session.

People may have forgotten — or perhaps never learned — about our American tradition of educational freedom and consumer choice. This tradition predates and lasted longer than or current practice of delivering education through a monopoly. Here’s hoping for a comeback.

Brandon Dutcher,

vice president for policy,

Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs