Schools of Thought

The school choice movement is divided over tactics and faces enormous establishment resistance. But it may still get what it wants.

Rick Henderson from the January 1997 issue

(Page 5 of 5)

Charter schools may not be the silver bullet that slays the school-monopoly beast. But before market-oriented education can win in the political arena, it has to appear sufficiently nonthreatening to PTA members, the Rotary Club, and the president of the local Chamber of Commerce. That victory must be won culturally. Changing the culture takes time.

While school choice supporters hope for a Berlin Wall-like event that will sweep aside compulsory schooling, most concede it may take a generation to change attitudes about public schools. While radical reformers push to change parents' minds, the structure of public schools will continue to change, thanks to such marginal reforms as private management, private education of difficult-to-educate students, the "contracting" of tuitions in overcrowded districts, private- practice teaching, and charter schools.

A generation from now, attitudes about the role of public schools may have changed. And by then, there may already be a vibrant market of entrepreneurial schools in place.