The antidote to illiteracy in our public schools is not, as President Clinton advocates, another federal program. The antidote is competition, and it is already beginning to work in states that have allowed it. In Arizona, parents in one rural school district had been fighting for years for options to the whole-language curriculum. The district steadfastly refused. It was only after a charter school moved in next door and promptly signed up more than one-third of the elementary school's 600 students, that the district agreed to offer alternatives.
Parents attending the district school can now choose among four instructional approaches.
With 118 charter schools in operation, the same scenario may soon be played out all over Arizona. The reason Johnny can't read today is not because we haven't invested sufficiently in public education, or because of a lack of federal attention to the issue. Our failure to allow competition in public education thus far is a mistake that we can no longer countenance. When a child doesn't learn to read, life itself is destined to be one big scary slanted climbing board. Our children deserve better.