Jews have always been concerned and affiliated with a strong commitment to the education system that not only serves them, but the rest of the population as well. We have long believed that what is good for America is good for Jews. Yet, there is no question that American public schools are failing and need help. Forty percent of all 10-year-olds cannot meet basic literacy tests; thirty percent of all college freshmen take remedial education classes. The Los Angeles Unified School District (where the second largest Jewish population in America resides) is symptomatic of the failure in public education: of the forty percent of students who actually graduate from the L.A. public high schools, eighty-eight percent read at the eighth grade level or below. Sending and subjecting our children to these schools is no virtue and does our children no favor.

Furthermore, those who can now afford to send their children to private schools, but consign those of lesser means to send their children to public schools, are guided by either chutzpah or elitism. Most school choice programs are based on a $2,500 voucher. According to the Department of Education, the average cost of private elementary schooling is just less than that. The average cost of all private schools (primary and secondary) is just above $3,000. School vouchers would go a long way toward providing the opportunities to parents who want to send their children to private schools but cannot afford to do so. The financially less-fortunate should have the same educational opportunities as our public servants. Fifty percent of our U.S. Senators, one-third of our Congressmen, and forty percent of our public school teachers send their children to private schools. Why should we be satisfied with anything less for our children?

Some believe that empowering parents to use their vouchers to send their children to sectarian schools will erode the separation between church and state. This fear is unfounded. Under the voucher system, parents will have the option of using their vouchers to send their children to either non- sectarian schools or schools with the affiliation of their choice. The parents can and should decide for themselves. For those who want to send their children to Jewish schools, the Supreme Court has held that when individuals spend the money (as opposed to the government), there is no First Amendment violation. This is why those who spent their GI Bill funds at Yeshiva University or Notre Dame did not violate the Establishment Clause any more than they did when they spent their funds at Columbia or Stanford. Furthermore, since 1925 the Supreme Court has recognized that parents have the liberty to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

For the most part, the orthodox Jewish community has proven impervious to assimilation and oblivion. This is because they enroll their children in schools committed to Jewish education. Yet, as Elliott Abrams notes "the elements of the Jewish community having the greatest difficulty keeping their children Jewish use the courts to attack the practice by which elements having the greatest success keep their children Jewish." For those parents who would rather not send their children to orthodox schools, the reform and conservative schools provide equally respectable options.

School choice is the most readily apparent solution to the problem of assimilation. It would also stimulate the competition necessary to improve public schools. If the Jewish organizations could remove themselves from their lock step adherence to the liberal arguments of yesterday, they would find themselves in step with their own diagnoses. It's unfortunate that sometimes there is nothing quite so mystifying as the obvious.
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