I'm 65 years old. I attended grade school in a one-room country school in rural Kansas. The teacher taught phonics. I am an excellent reader. My daughter, now 30 years old, was taught phonics in San Jose in first grade. She is a better reader than I am. Why is this an issue? Are the majority of people in education complete idiots? Why question something that obviously works? Lucy Calkins is a disgrace to her profession. And she is dangerous, but no more so than the people responsible for hiring her and giving her status. This is a no-brainer. Why have we not learned anything in 60 years?

In this discussion of education, there is no mention of those who are educating at home, seemingly breaking all the rules and yet succeeding nonetheless. I'm thinking especially of the "unschoolers." I'm sure that it is difficult to get good data on this, and yet I think any comprehensive study of where we should go with education needs to take into consideration what home-based education is doing and why it is working so well (at least as far as I can see).

I favor an adaptation of the Canadian school system for America, most specifically the system one finds in Alberta. Canada offers two public school systems: Catholic public schools and non-Catholic public schools. Non-Catholic public school districts in Alberta include both secular and parochial schools. Our American philosophy of separation of church and state would prevent us from doing exactly as the Canadians do, but their system could be adapted to something more acceptable to Americans. Edmonton offers almost every type of school imaginable, and parents gleefully look forward to spring "school shopping," as the former superintendent of its non-Catholic district explained to me a few years ago. Those who are instructionists (such as Stern, Hirsch, Ravitch, and which I am as well) could choose "traditional" schools. That is a refreshing change from what I have found in America. I have done a search of explicitly named "traditional" schools in America, and the list is very short!

What I recommend is dual enrollment public/parochial schools, something already legal in the state where I live – Illinois. This was tried a few decades ago, but it was found to be unsatisfactory since the two schools were not merged. I see no reason why the public school district could not work with faith-based organizations to run public/parochial schools as joint ventures. Offering choice gives parents the dignity and sovereignty that should be theirs in determining which school best provides the formation they desire for their children. Dual enrollment public/parochial schools would provide employees of all types of schools, not just those who work in secular public schools, the level of wages and benefits that those with advanced education and expertise should receive.

I do not support vouchers, because they perpetuate schools that provide poor benefits and pay low wages to highly qualified and well-educated employees. Charter schools managed by school districts, such as one finds in Appleton, Wisconsin, provide more school choices within districts, but I do not support privately managed charter schools. I should probably write a book to explain my positions on all of the above recommendations.

Your article is fascinating and well written. However, isn't there another possible conclusion? Market forces don't work if the consumer is not sufficiently educated and aware. If the consumer were aware of the direct link between content-based education and student success, then there would certainly be market demand.

And although I'm Catholic, there is no magic with Catholic schools, and no market dependency on them running schools. Given sufficient demand, the market will respond by creating new schools that satisfy the demand. The market was presented with a tentative experiment, and you expect someone to invest real money in a school?

So, the mistake is testing the hypothesis of school choice with an experiment that only involves the least educated and least involved consumers. And the ed schools are not a good example of market forces at work. One, the government is very intrusive in higher education. Two, and more importantly, the consumers' (students) prospects for jobs are currently enhanced by being steeped in these counterproductive ideas of education.

If the entire country were to switch to free choice, not because we want to help inner-city kids, but because it is morally wrong to restrict the right to liberty, then over time, the market would demand performance, which means strong content-based curricula. The job prospects for anti-content-oriented students would go down, and the market demand for better education schools would rise.

It seems presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was right. When he was about to endorse a voucher program in Arkansas, Catholic schools and evangelical Christian private schools pushed back, asking him to oppose the plan.

Aside from the arguments in Stern's article, the crushing weight of federal mandates such as the Americans With Disabilities Act would have bankrupted schools who couldn't afford to carry the more costly student demographics they would have to accept in order to receive the vouchers.

A better way to support school choice is through tax credits, and since Huckabee's campaign is centered on eliminating our Pavlovian tax structure, tax incentives would be much harder to manage.

Enter the 10th Amendment. Sending this issue back to the states is the right thing to do. However, when we lay the responsibility of school reform in the states' laps, we need to rethink all of the federal mandates the folks in Washington send to states wrapped in a tattered copy of the Constitution.

What your article and a million others on this subject fail to address are the students and the parents. The problem with urban public schools is the culture. The culture that does not value education. The culture that refuses to accept any responsibility - whether it be behavior in the classroom or the enforcement of instruction at home.

As long as this culture encourages passing grades for failing performance by the students, the system will systematically fail. Until we have genuine consequences and stop providing babysitting services under the guise of school, we will meet the same results year after year.

You can have the best product on the planet with the most money backing it, but if the "customer," as you indicate, does not see the value in it, nobody's buying.

A well-written article, but a false choice. Why can't we have demanding curricula in public schools and numerous choices for schools through vouchers, tax credits, and charter schools? Had the debaters spent the last seven years practicing their respective positions instead of arguing to reach consensus, they might have achieved something.

People who have dirtied their hands with actually doing something have shown it is possible to do both. The KIPP charter school network proves that inner-city kids can excel in a rigorous curriculum with high expectations and principal flexibility, while providing their parents the choice of where to send them. With their consistently top-tier testing, graduation and college-bound results, why is it such a mystery what works? What prevents these failing school systems from adopting the KIPP curriculum and methods wholesale? Instead of investing in a solid Volvo, they are pinstriping and putting a spoiler on a rusty Pinto with a loose front wheel.

If the teachers' union dragon cannot be slain by school choice, then kill it by giving it what it wants. Pour in the money, but mandate the KIPP curriculum and methods, while allowing the principals to fire teachers who don't measure up after three years.

This was a nicely written article. I taught for 30 years(HS/University) and became well versed in cognitive learning styles and had great success. Nevertheless, when discussing "educational reform" I always wonder why we are trying to reform an antiquated agricultural/industrial-based system, when we should be asking the question: If we were "inventing" an educational system today, what would it look like?

The problem with voucher programs as currently constituted is that, at $2,500.00/year or so, they represent only a fraction of the cost of providing a good secondary eduction.

Here in Ohio, we spend about $9,500.00 per student. If people were allowed, say, an $8,500.00 voucher,
leaving $1,000.00 to be given for government school overhead (waste), and had their taxes (mostly real estate and state/local taxes) reduced by $8,500.00, then all
would have serious money to work with. I am sure that $8,500.00 would cause the free marketplace to respond with very good solutions that over time would also permit the construction of superior facilities.

In Europe, the money goes with the student, and it
works. Just look at their performance on standardized tests in math and science versus ours. If it works there, it can work here - even with our melting pot society.

One of my real joys in life is a monthly opportunity to be a panel member of a nationally-syndicated, call-in radio show (Beyond the Beltway) originating in Chicago. I am usually one of three panel members, the other two of whom are either liberal or, often, far-left liberal. The host includes me because this combination usually makes for conversation that ranges from lively to adversarial. And that’s "good radio."

Recently, the host asked one of my fellow guests (a black journalist/radio call-in host himself) if he could identify any areas where Democratic politicians have abandoned their core constituencies, failing to advance their real interests. He answered that yes, black politicians had failed to bring their people along to an understanding of how important universal health care and global warming are. (I'm not making this up!)

Confident that I would be causing a serious rupture in the show’s decorum, I responded that I agreed that black politicians are indeed abandoning their constituencies on two important issues: school choice/vouchers and job-destroying indifference to illegal immigration. I leaned back to absorb the blast of denunciation I knew was coming, only to hear him respond: "You’re right," and(paraphrasing here) "On my show, on a mostly black radio station, those are the two issues that people call in about ALL the time. And when I listen to my station when I’m not on, my fellow hosts hear the same thing."

Maybe there's some hope that monolithic African-American support for the party that has abandoned them on these issues can be eroded. Maybe.

As long as schools continue the practice of credentialism, the ideological hegemony of the schools of "education" will continue to defeat most efforts at reform.

It is time for people to recognize what anyone who goes to college knows: the ed schools are for dummies, the classes are trivial, and teachers get credentials attesting to their lack of knowledge of anything practical.

Let's have people who know something, rather than those schooled in "education, teach our kids.

As much as I agree with what you have to say about school choice, I'm afraid one subject remains untouched - how the public school monopoly has effectively closed its competition - in front of everyone's eyes.

I'm talking about the massive, insane, unnecessary "new" school construction which has spread throughout the country. Politics was behind most of this - with the acclaim of certain politicans, union officials, and construction firms. I live in a rural area, and the outcome of all of this is nada...nothing, except the closing of almost all the parochial and private schools that once dotted the landscape (my town once had four, and now we have none).

Vouchers can't help when these schools are already closed.

A clear vision and speaking the truth - even when it hurts - might stop this insanity from happening again...If only someone would notice.