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Not vouching for ‘school choice’

By Wesley Calvert
thesouthern.com
Posted: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 1:00 a.m.

It looks like the school choice debate is back, but my recent time in India makes me skeptical. I have seen school choice. And we don't want it.

India is a good model for what a world of school choice could look like.

The public school system has habitually and catastrophically under-performed since the country's 1947 independence.

As a result, a vibrant community of private schools has sprung up. Many follow a well-planned philosophy of education, the teachers are often well-qualified and enthusiastic, and the top output of these schools consists of some of the best-trained students in the world.

There's only one problem: The system, as a whole, doesn't work.

You could start with the fact that a third of all children drop out before reaching grade 5, and nearly half before reaching high school. You could start with the fact that 23 percent of men and 45 percent of women are illiterate.

The real problems, though, are the cost of K-12 education and difficulty of telling the good schools from the bad. While colleges are much cheaper than in the U.S., elementary schools can cost $6,000 a year (nearly twice the average income), and high school annual tuitions more than $20,000 are not shocking.

Because the public schools have been left to rot by the government, even people who can't afford it send their kids to private schools. After all, their kids are at stake. But then they hit the next wall.

It's really hard to tell how good a school is. It's hard for experts.

People who don't have much education themselves are in trouble when they have to pick. Do you ask about test scores (but what about the drop-out rate)? Do you ask what colleges graduates attend (but what about the lower end of the class)? Do you ask about the curriculum (but is that what's actually taught)? Normally, you just wind up trusting somebody you shouldn't.

And then there's admission. There are many more students than there are places for students in the good schools. The admission standards can be very tough. Is your pre-K child good enough that admitting them will reflect well on us when he graduates from high school? I'd like to tell you the parents' wealth and social class play no part in this decision, but I can't.

The bright side, though, is that even for the poorest and least promising, there's always somebody ready to take their money. Parents pay more than they can afford to send their children to private schools, which are often overpriced and do no good except to their owners, who can turn a handsome profit.

To be sure, Indian schools produce some bright graduates. It would be hard not to with a population that large. And our system, as it stands, has some severe challenges. But adding hordes of unqualified profiteers into the market to price grade schools like colleges and dupe poor parents won't help.

So, with no disrespect at all to the people who think a little market competition would improve the quality of Illinois schools, I have to say I'm really not that interested. We're better off fixing the schools we have.