EDUCATION: Making the grade

For those who wonder whether school choice really might improve education, solid clues have emerged.

Florida's Opportunity Scholarship program makes students at chronically failing public schools eligible for private school vouchers. The first wave of transfers came in 1999, when 34 Pensacola children used their vouchers to enroll in Catholic schools.

The Pensacola News Journal tells how they fared:

"Test scores from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills -- a national test that ranks students with their peers across the country -- show all but two voucher students progressed more than one grade level for each year they've been in the program. One student, who was performing slightly below grade level when she began Catholic school, jumped six grade levels in three years."

No reasonable person would deny that those students are benefitting from school choice.

Significantly, the newspaper reports that the parochial school pays its teachers less and has more students per classroom than public schools. An administrator at the parochial school says it stresses discipline, structure and high expectations. The basics also are emphasized, particularly reading and math in the lower grades.

While public schools often are held hostage by state and district mandates, the article notes, Catholic schools have been doing things the same way for decades. The truth, as documented by Diane Ravitch in her book Left Back, is that a lot of trendy teaching theories don't work. Private schools have an advantage simply because they can stick to methods that have been proven effective.

The key to being successful is in learning from those who are successful. Public schools can better serve their students -- and retain them -- by adopting some of the techniques used by private schools. Part of the solution, also, may be giving teachers more control over their classrooms.

Some people view school choice as a terrible threat to public education. In fact, studies show the competition for students helps public education improve.

Ultimately, the struggle isn't between public and private education. It's between good and bad education.