There was another important public service announcement from the media this week, lambasting the Bush administration’s failed No Child Left Behind law. Susan Goodkin and David G. Gold wrote a column entitled, “The Gifted Children Left Behind”. While I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment and the substance of their argument, I take serious issue with one specific part of it:

“Perhaps if more policymakers sent their children to public schools they would address these unintended but disastrous consequences of No Child. Rather than trying to rectify this situation, however, many politicians advocate a voucher program that would only encourage more parents to desert public education.”

I’m going to say something controversial here. I do think the public education system should be deserted. And I feel incredibly strongly about that. I believe, with all my heart, that the only hope of saving the schools is to privatize them. For all it’s faults, there is one about a capitalist system that can never be disputed: if you don’t get the results, you get eliminated- no excuses, no second chances, no favoritism, and no sympathy.

The public school system is not getting results and it hasn’t for a long time. We would be extremely remiss to confuse our frustration with No Child Left Behind with our frustration over the failures that preceded and prompted it. The public school system is, has been, and will continue to be a near-complete failure.

We cannot allow this to go on simply because we are too afraid to face the facts. We must accept the fact that our noblest of institutions has failed and that moreover, it cannot succeed. We are reluctant, as we should be, to admit that we have lost faith in the schools and the conventional wisdom that has guided them. Yet we must face these facts- the future for our children and our country depends upon it. We may be diplomatic, but the truth is not.

And so it is without hesitation that I say: the public school system must go.

Here are four reasons why:.

First and foremost, the system must go because it has lost the faith of its constituents- the kids themselves. When children don’t respect the schools, it is exceedingly hard to get them to respect education. The schools have been so bad for so long, that children know that the system doesn’t take them seriously, doesn’t value them, doesn’t place their needs first, and in fact, isn’t really there for them. They may not think about it in those terms when they’re young, but instinctively they know it. And by the time they reach high school, they definitely know it. When kids aren’t valued and they aren’t engaged, they turn off- thereby making the system even harder to recover.

Second, as my Mom once observed, the unintended consequence of the Women’s movement was that the best and brightest women left the schools. They left in droves, almost overnight, in pursuit of a real career. My mom was a tremendous businesswoman- but she could’ve made a difference as a teacher. This is not meant as a crack on feminism- though I know some will insist on taking it that way. My point is only to ask, who are we trusting with this responsibility?

And while I have the deepest respect for all teachers -and I truly, truly do- we must be honest in saying that we are not allocating the best and brightest individuals to the most vital part of our nation’s future- our children. We are allocating them to hospitals, law firms, Wall Street, and the halls of Congress. They seem to go anywhere and everywhere except our most important institution.

And furthermore, the best and brightest who do remain, are being steadily driven out of the system because they simply cannot take it any more. This did not start with No Child Left Behind, nor will it end with another well-named, well-intended, piece of reform. We cannot forget that fact: we need wonderful teachers, and we need them now. We absolutely must create an environment- and not simply a paycheck- that will attract the best and brightest back to education.

Third, the bureaucracy cannot and will not be overcome. There are simply too many entrenched interests- interests that make sense when we put ourselves in the shoes of those who have them, but that too often run counter to needs of our children. Fear of lawsuits is endemic. Fear of criticism and culpability (deserved or not) freezes teachers, administrators, and politicians in their tracks. They cannot do anything without upsetting a parent, a boss, a superintendent, and a voter. So instead they let down the children- the only people involved without a voice. And so there is no room for creativity. There is no room for taking chances. The excellent teachers we do have are completely unable to do there job because their skills and the children’s needs simply do not conform to the needs of the system.

I have been in every kind of school- the very best and the very worst. I have grown and I have been stifled. And I have had great teachers every step of the way. And this is the important point. This is why the public school system has got to go.

No Child Left Behind is a complete failure. But the law exists because we need it- we need something. Some form of accountability must be introduced into the system. But the problem is, this accountability system is of the very same, simple-minded, overbearing, misguided, and fatally flawed system that the schools themselves are. It is one bureaucracy policing another (or hundreds of others). That is why it cannot work. There isn’t a model, measure, or rubric in the world that can encompass all children. There isn’t even a model that can encompass all school districts. Different needs, by definition, need different things.

But the law, for all it’s glaring faults, took aim at the right issue: accountability. We all agree that we simply cannot afford to let our children down as we have been. We cannot sit idly by and watch the future of our families, our economy, and our nation drift away into a school induced stupor.

We must find a way to both hold schools accountable, and at the same time, provide them with the tools they need and more importantly the freedom to do what they do best. The system and the children may have overlapping goals in theory, but when push comes to shove, when those interests don’t overlap, the unique needs of the system trump those of the kids. There is an inevitable and endemic tug-of-war and teachers are caught in the middle fighting for their peace of mind.

And it is for all of these reason that I have been utterly horrified to find that so many of my friends, whose opinions and insights I seek, respect, and rely on, take offense at the even the mere suggestion of school vouchers. The very people who care most about education seem to be the most stridently opposed to doing the only thing that I see possible that could save it.

And there are inevitably but a few concerns that arise. The first is that it will devastate the public school system. The second is that Wall-Mart and McDonald’s will take over the system and bleed it dry- homogenous content and cost-cutting and quality cutting will rule the day. And the third is that it’s privatized- not public. The fourth is a strange constitutional: ‘I don’t want my tax money sending somebody else’s kid to Catholic school.’

None of these criticisms has ever made sense to me- though I share, to the deepest fibers of my being, the fear of failure that causes them. But we must dig deeper. We cannot have a knee-jerk reaction. We cannot fail to be creative, to take chances, and to do what is necessary so that all children are not left behind.

For this reason, I would address these concerns as follows:

First, of course vouchers will devastate the public school system. That is the point. It is the only reason to use them. It is unfortunate that public education has not worked. But we cannot continue to fail our children because we are unwilling to confront that which is regrettable. Countries all over the world, who spend far less per pupil than we do, are vastly outperforming us. And they are doing it with vouchers.

As for the second concern, that big business will take over the schools and will turn it into a homogenous system, with poor quality, and rampant with cost-cutting, I would suggest that nothing more perfectly captures the essence of the system we already have.

If we are concerned about business exploiting the schools as they have, for instance, the media, we can put a cap on how many schools a company can own. We cannot fall prey to complaints about economies of scale. That is nonsense. We don’t need lots of stuff. Visit a classroom in Africa and you will see that a good education requires very little in material objects. A good education requires that the students are engaged, supported, valued, and nurtured. Fancy swimming pools and computer labs on their own do not make a poor education worth having. At best they make a good education better.

And for the third complaint, that people don’t like the idea of not having a public education system, I would argue that nothing has changed but the management. Every child in America will still be guaranteed an education. That will not change. What will change is that not every teacher and administrator will be guaranteed a job. That has to change.

We believe in the value of competition. We believe in the value of choice. We believe in our own good sense. And we believe that our children must have, and are entitled to, the very best education this society can provide. We don’t get any of this with the public school system.

Fourth and finally, I am no longer willing to watch a child’s bright eyes grow dim because somebody has a philosophical axe to grind. If we hold the constitution so high that we are willing to sacrifice our children’s future, then we should spend less time arguing about gay marriage amendments and more time figuring out how we are otherwise going to compete with China and India.