School choice and accountability

"No system of schooling is perfect," former teacher Michael Q. McShane writes. 

It is a tall order to educate hundreds of thousands or millions of students from diverse backgrounds and with diverse needs. There will always be some number of schools that underperform. You cannot micromanage that away.

Ultimately parents are closest to their children, know their children better than anyone else, and have the strongest incentives to get the best possible education for them. That doesn’t mean that they are perfect. That just means that they’re better. Safeguards must be put in place as a fall-back (and things like regular audits are part of existing education savings account programs in other states and should be part of any program going forward), but they should be designed to support and work with parents and give them the best information they need to make informed decisions.

That is how we hold schools truly accountable.