Free to choose

Recent protests over planned Detroit school closings reinforce the importance of choice in education. Parents resent the lack of control they have over their children’s education. Meanwhile, the board is faced with a serious financial shortfall that demands the elimination of excess capacity.

The school district has the opportunity to implement a solution that satisfies their customers and the budget by giving parents what they want – choice and control. Let parents choose which schools in the district they want their children to attend. Those schools that don’t achieve minimum enrollment requirements would be closed. Principals and teachers can work to attract students by promoting their standardized test scores, specialized curriculums, graduation rates and other characteristics.

Parental choice is the right way to right-size the district. The board needs to face the fact that in the past decade, tens of thousands have already made a choice to leave the district. Now, give them a reason to choose to stay.

[Letter to the Editor - Detroit Free Press. Published 01/17/2007.]