Tough educational choices

Politicians are offering competing short-term prescriptions for America's ailing economy during this election year. The long-term health of our nation's economy, however, will be determined not just by government's taxing and spending policies, but by the success — or failure — of attempts to improve our public education system. And money alone can't buy good public schools.

That educational reality has long been painfully obvious in many major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. As Sen. Joseph Lieberman writes on this page, students in our nation's capital have for decades been poorly served by a public-school system that ranks "near the top nationally in per-pupil spending" yet "among the nation's worst in the percentage of its students who were proficient in reading and math."

The good news, reports Sen. Lieberman, is that D.C. school system Chancellor Michelle Rhee is making encouraging progress with innovations that require "tough choices about marshaling resources and dealing with failing schools."

Tough choices often rile teacher unions and entrenched administrators. So does the continuing push for expanded school choice. But if the goal is to elevate student achievement by elevating parental involvement, expanded school choice is a proven means of doing both.

As Sen. John McCain, the looming Republican presidential nominee, told the NAACP convention in Cincinnati last week: "When a public system fails repeatedly to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a choice in the education of their children."

Such choices are on the rise, though a promising pilot voucher program in Washington appears likely to be discontinued by Congress after its initial funding expires next year.

And unfortunately, Sen. Barack Obama, the looming Democratic presidential nominee, is now back in line with the teachers unions after daring, earlier this year, to express interest in giving voucher initiatives and merit pay a chance.

Still, school choice clearly has momentum. As Sen. McCain told the NAACP: "After decades of hearing the same big promises from the public education establishment and seeing the same poor results, it is surely time to shake off old ways and to demand new reforms. That isn't just my opinion. It's the conviction of parents in poor neighborhoods across this nation who want better lives for their children."

That doesn't mean charter schools, vouchers or merit pay will always yield rapid and major gains in classroom results. But the success they have produced proves that they're a far superior option than the status quo of academic futility that is shortchanging so many American children today. Expanding school choice and getting rid of deadwood in the public schools will enhance our nation's economic future.