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More and more frequently, defenders of the status quo in public education assert that public charter schools need to be made more “accountable.” Further, many assert that private schools, if their students are allowed to participate in emerging educational choice options, should meet the same “accountability” requirements as public schools. But let’s think about this for a moment. In what sense are public schools truly “accountable”?

The question is often asked, “How do we fix public schools?” Dr. Jay Greene, an education professor at the University of Arkansas, has an innovative answer: “We can fix schools by going around them.”

“Education is the key to freedom and opportunity,” Mr. King said. “We basically have one supplier, the public education system, and it has become a huge bureaucracy. This bureaucracy has to be challenged. Fairness demands that every child, not just the rich, has access to an education that will help them achieve their dreams.”

49th in per-pupil spending may or may not be OK. But widespread school-produced illiteracy is most certainly not OK.

With the horrific and heartbreaking news coming out of an Oklahoma high school recently, the issues of school safety and bullying are once again in the news.

May it please the court: taxpayer dollars have long been used in ways that support the education of children in private institutions.

November’s most important election wasn’t the governor’s race. It wasn’t the race for state superintendent. Surprisingly, it was the election to determine who would represent District 87 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

In 2007 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published a report, “Leaders & Laggards,” which gave Oklahoma’s public school system an “F.” The report said “student performance in Oklahoma is very poor—the state ranks among the lowest in the nation.”

Yes, it’s also true that we need to “fix public schools.” But it’s difficult to fix public schools that don't want to be fixed.

Oklahoma special-needs children recently lost a battle in their four-year war for education freedom. But it isn’t just their opportunity for a better education that’s at stake. Oklahoma’s commitment to religious freedom, pluralism, and social harmony between people of different beliefs is also implicated.