If I were Emperor of Education...

Jay Mathews of the Washington Post ran an essay by Richard Chapleau on the subject, "If I Were Emperor of Education." I came across links to it at Highered Intelligence, where I also learned that Chris O'Donnell was challenging his readers to offer their own answers to the question.

And so I go, If I were Emperor of Education

I would let the market reign. Rather than a government solution of mass proportions (like mass transit, mass media, mass production, and weapons of mass destruction all products of the modern age) involving standardized curricula, standardized testing, standardized teacher preperation, and stadard textbooks (another feature of the modern age) I would embrace the post-modern possibilities of markets to liberate individual choice. Away with the model of schools designed to suit the age of coal and iron.

Anyone should be able to start a school and see who sends their children. People could form schools to any purpose using any methods, parents will choose to send their children to the school that appeals to them the most. I have no doubt that the best possible results will be achieved when competative pressures are applied to education as they are to the sale of other goods and services.