School Choice: still an issue? Cutting back the over growth of skepticism and doubt.

"Ideologically inspired lamentations about the parlous state of American education mask the much more complex truth" Quote from Peter Schrag on School Choice.
(http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97oct/fail.htm)

The article that I got that quote from is very interesting because the author claims that all the worries about how bad public schools are today are boarder line myths. He points out areas of achievement like one in every four Americans has a college degree, which is the highest in the world. He also points out that the comparisons to other industrialized countries in terms of achievement are not valid because for example in Britain and Germany, by the time students are of age to take achievement indicator tests like SATs and ACTs, they are already weeded out and into more specific job training programs. Basically, students who do not do well in school are moved into trade schools, and are not included in comparisons with the United States in terms of achievement. In the United States all scores are included since every citizen legally has the property right to an education and this fact brings down scores that are used to compare the U.S. to other countries.

So what are the implications for me as a future educator?

I think that despite the good statistics and the bad, which I am not denying but just sharing positive statistics, that there is hope for public schools. Sure, there are un-questionably bad public schools out there, but that does not mean that the entire system should be thrown out with the bath water. (I am entirely way to young to use that metaphor, haha...) Public schools are making a difference. Imagine if schools were entirely privatized. This would mean that in the process of the schools improving, like business do in a competitive market, tuition would be high at first while the market eventually lowers prices because of the concept of supply and demand. For a time, education would be to expensive for low class Americans. This is ok in the business world because this usually applies to products that are not necessities like food and water. Allowing education to be privatized is like treating a basic commodity like bread as if it were the newest mustang model. Education is a basic necessity and if it was allowed to be privatized, it would undoubtedly become exclusions, even if for a brief time, and this would be at the cost of our children. The beauty of the American Public School system is that all citizens are entitled to it, even of they don't want it. We believe in valuing the individual, no matter their socio-economic status.
School choice is a great way to keep the government accountable to their own system, and a great way to value the individual in allowing them to go to a better school. However, school choice is not in my opinion the solution exclusively, just another piece to the puzzle of a solution.

I think that the public school system is getting lost in an over growth of skepticism and doubt.