Reply #53: I do not accept the premise

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that all public schools nor all charter/private schools perform the same. Consequently, statements that charter schools perform *worse* is misleading at best. It's as silly as saying Japanese cars perform better than American cars, so don't ever buy an American car. Some individual American cars get great marks, as do some Japanese, while some of both get terrible reviews. Making a decision on which car to get by only examining the data in aggregate is a mistake.

Some public schools are excellent (like the elementary and middle schools in my neighborhood). Some public schools are horrible.

Likewise, I have every expectation that some charter/private schools do excellent, and some charter/private schools are horrible. Competition for students is what will move resources from the schools doing it wrong to the schools doing it right (whether they are charter, private, or public).

I simply want parents/students to be given a choice with respect to where their children are schooled. I want them to have the opportunity to escape horrible schools that present system does not allow.

I have no idea what you mean by "accountability". Please define that.

If you went to a restaurant and had a horrible experience, fights breaking out, food was cold or rotten, and the waiter had 10 other tables, would you keep going back, maybe give them more money next time? Or would you seek out the restaurant with better service, better atmosphere, and better food? Over time what would happen to the 'bad' restaurant without monopoly access to your wallet, or your family? If they started picketing your house demanding you come to their restaurant, would that sway you? Do you understand in what respect the restaurant owner, the chef, and the waiter are accountable to the customer?

Choice reforms the world around us constantly, in ways it appears you don't even recognize yet (given your hostility to individual choice). It needs to be unleashed in the realm of education.