John Stossel spoke at Colby recently making front-page news by suggesting that public education was woefully lacking. Reason: the absence of competition in our government-subsidized system. Stossel suggested that moving education into the private sector and giving consumers choice would fix it.

One has only to look at our country's for-profit health-care system to realize what a bad idea this is!

However, I think he was right about the need for parents and students to be able to "vote with their feet" and choose the best schools. This would be the best kind of accountability for our school systems -- who better than students know what really goes on?

Instead of relying on standardized test scores or failure and graduation rates to judge schools, I say we should let the consumers decide. The best school systems in the world are well funded at the national level and adequately staffed -- neither of which are true in the U.S. In countries like France, England or Japan, parents compete to get their kids into the best schools in the system. American parents deserve this opportunity and, if they had it, our schools would improve despite decades of poor funding.

With the endless war on terror raging on, we must look for solutions that acknowledge that our tax dollars continue to be siphoned off from public services. Turning the schools over to corporate control is not the answer, but offering choice is a great idea.

Lisa Savage

Solon