Power of Parents

Some in Chicago are trying. I know Mayor Daley and Chicago School Supt. Arne Duncan are working the problem. (One of the Civic Committee's recommendations is to lift the legislative cap on charter schools in Chicago.) The district just invited Bill Cosby to Chicago to talk to parents. Sun Times:

''It's not the schools. It's not the streets. It's not even the church,'' said Cosby, speaking at a conference hosted by Chicago Public Schools. ''You've got to build confidence in your child in your home.''

About 9,000 parents and educators attended the ''Power of Parents'' seminar, a two-day event at McCormick Place that resembled a cross between political rally, academic seminar and religious revival.

This underscores the research (earlier post) which shows how parental involvement is vital for children's success in school and life. Of course, the NEA is in the way. And here's a broad conservative approach which embraces school reform through choice, among other domestic policy prescriptions for the future, "Putting Parents First". Yuval Levin, in the Dec. 4th issue of the Weekly Standard:

In education, it is well past time to have another serious go at school choice, which can appeal to the parenting class both as a solution in their own children's lives and as a call to conscience. By highlighting failing schools in underserved areas (a task made easier by the mountains of data now becoming available through the No Child Left Behind Act), while making clear to parents that their own children need not be thrown into a confusing new system of choices and options if their schools are working, conservatives can build a middle-class case for helping lower-class children escape failing schools.

Parents are invested in the future for themselves, and their children. Most parents know their children get only one shot at a good education, and want them to succeed. Let's empower parents, not bureaucrats.

UPDATE: Jeff Berkowitz, Public Affairs, interviews Circuit Court Clerk of Cook County Dorothy Brown, who has announced she will challenge Mayor Daley in the next election, and gets a response that she would be open to school vouchers.