Edutopia - September 2007 - (Page 7) ™ Letters I live in a booming suburban area with four “signature” supermarkets fighting for market share with lots of product choices, beautiful stores, and great customer service. I work in a rural area thirty minutes away that is not as well off, with no booming population. There, there’s one beat-up, oldfashioned grocery store with a limited selection and higher prices. Inner city areas have similar challenges, because the supermarkets have no incentive to do more. That’s the free-market system at work: You go where you can maximize your profit. Community service, if profitable, is a by-product. In an open-market education system, you would have the same large percentage of consumers with no real choice and others with all the choices in the world. Education should be different from the supermarket business. As a society, we have made a pledge that all children will have an equal opportunity to get the best education possible—regardless of where they live or what their economic status is. Ted Jongbloed Director, technology services Waller Independent School District Waller, Texas James Daly Editor in Chief Jennifer Foote Sweeney Executive Editor Laura Morris Designs Creative Director Owen Edwards Consulting Editor Naheed Attari Managing Editor Mark Nichol Assistant Managing Editor & Web Production Editor Grace Rubenstein Staff Writer & Multimedia Producer Sara Bernard Editorial Assistant Edutopia.org Cal Joy Senior Director, Digital Content & Technology Geoff Butterfield Senior Technical Web Producer Diane Demée-Benoit Consulting Online Editor Laurie Chu-Yusem Media Designer Video Ken Ellis Senior Producer Karen Sutherland Editor Amy Erin Borovoy Associate Producer Loren Micalizio Associate Producer Don’t Shop for Education Lisa Snell wrote recently that if you give families school choice, they will get choice schools (Dispatches, June 2007), but this makes sense only in areas with either large populations or high incomes. You merely have to look at your editor’s supermarket example (Editor’s Note, June 2006) to see how free enterprise would really work in the education marketplace. Contributors Writers Ann Cooper, Roberta Furger, Carol Guensburg, Don Lipper, Ellen Moir, Evantheia Schibsted, Fran Smith, Burr Snider, Denise Kersten Wills Copy Editors Courtney Benvenuti, Molly Jackel Fact-Checkers Lisa Wong Macabasco, Erika Stalder Editorial Assistant Alexei Bien Graphic Designer Wendy Stoddart Web Designer Debra St. John Photographers & Illustrators William Duke, Indigo Flores, David Julian, Olivier Laude, Bart Nagel, Klaus Schoenwiese, JJ Sulin, Jenny Elia Pfeiffer, Mark Todd, Mark Wagoner, Noah Webb, Xplane Narrators Michael Pritchard, Kris Welch Camera Operators Brian Cardello, Rob Weller Music Ed Bogas Letters to the Editor All letters and attendant materials (such as photos) become the property of GLEF and may be reproduced and used in whole or in part, by any means and in any manner or media, at the sole discretion of GLEF. Opinions expressed do not reflect those of GLEF or any affiliated person or entity. Dollars for Defense Ben Cohen is a prime example of how ignorant most, not all, Americans are when it comes to monies for education (“Get On the Bus,” July/August 2007). Cohen, like so many on the Left, always comes up with “The military gets x dollars, and public education gets y dollars.” Perhaps Cohen and others of his mind-set do not realize defense is a major function of the federal government. Education, tragically, is not. Education is basically a state/local matter, with some federal monies for certain programs. And even when Washington sends money to the states, most state education agencies take about 20 percent for overhead. Then, when the state sends money to locals, especially in urban areas, the local administration takes a hunk. Little money ever gets to the classroom. I know this because I worked for the National Education Association for twenty years. This fine teacher organization spent millions of dollars to find out how federal money flows down, but it has never been able to discern why the classroom teacher never gets very much of the federal money. The Congress and the White House (and not just on George W. Bush’s watch) give the states a lot of dictums, such as that horrible program called No Child Left Behind. “Do this,” say the folks in Washington, yet they don’t follow up with the money. It would be grand if they would send more. Unless we change a lot of laws (and possibly the Constitution), defense will get a lot of money, much of it spent on technology so we won’t have to read the number of Americans who have been killed in some far-off land. (I wish it were not so.) Cohen’s gimmick may find a home with irrational, arrogant, and ignorant Americans, yet it won’t change a whole lot. R.D.B. Laime Albuquerque, New Mexico Submissions We welcome story ideas and pitches that relate to learning and teaching in our nation’s public schools, from educators and professional writers alike. Email edit@edutopia.org. We cannot be responsible for the return, loss of, or damage to unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Subscriptions For subscriptions, address changes, adjustments, or back-issue inquiries, please call (888) 385-6821 or email educs@magserv.com. Volume 3, Issue 6, September 2007 No part of this periodical may be reproduced other than for educational notfor-profit purposes without the consent of GLEF. For educational, not-forprofit reprints of stories from this issue, please use the credit line “Originally published in the September 2007 issue of Edutopia. Visit www.edutopia.org.” Edutopia and the GLEF trademark and logo are trademarks of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Copyright 2007 by The George Lucas Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved. 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