The 227-year-old proposal to make it possible for students to attend a school of their and/or their parents choice has seen both supporters and working models growing in recent years, although it is still far from standard in basic education. While Americans pride themselves on their social conscience and concern for the individual, other nations often have led in establishing programs. For example, Social Security was introduced here in the late 1930s, while it appeared in Bismarck's Germany in the 1870s. The pattern has held true for educational freedom as well, common in at least limited versions throughout the developed world except here.

It is curious to see the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a professed advocate of individual civil liberties, consistently oppose school choice which, in 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled is a constitutional right, that is, a civil right, or liberty. The ACLU position is that group interests override individual rights, that if some students leave others will be "left behind." With friends arguing that students in public schools are "left behind," the public schools need no enemies.

As with most proposals for significant change, progress in the area of school choice has come slowly and been hard-fought. Opponents are well-organized, well-funded, and part of interlocked self-interests. It is also easier to block than create change; blockage at any point, especially in legislatures, kills it.

Supporters of choice belong to many small, scattered groups, if organized at all. Reformers need also to agree on a proposal; opponents only have to say no. The effects of the status quo has the advantage of being known. Benefits of the proposed system, however full of promise, are unknown and fear of the unknown is a powerful motivator.

Politically, and this is primarily a political question, elected officials rarely profit from being much ahead of public opinion even, or especially, when they are right. Movement of public opinion, and thus of political action, has been significant in the past decade or so, with some successes, not least of which was the U.S. Supreme Court's 2002 ruling that vouchers do not violate the First Amendment, and may have reached a critical mass.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that too many Americans lack a basic commitment to democracy and pluralism, despite rhetoric and protestations to the contrary, particularly and ironically that coming from the left who profess to favor diversity, individual rights, and the like at the same time they frequently oppose them in practice.

If we respect individual opinions, individual freedom, diversity and the value of democracy, why is there so much fear of letting parents determine the course of their children's education? The emotional charge that choice will lead to schools for witches, David Dukes or the Ku Klux Klan has, sadly, been effective.

Forget for the moment that those extremist schools don't exist now, and the absence of demand for them. Never mind the U.S. Supreme Court's 1925 decision also said that the government can regulate, limit or prohibit schools inimical to the public interest. Consider instead where the witches, the David Dukes, and the Ku Klux Klanners have gone to school. The answer, almost always, is a public school. By contrast, few are products of nonpublic schools of choice. While public schools have not taught such agendas, they clearly haven't been able to educate students away from them either.

There are supporters of government schools and supporters of independent schools. Sadly, many on each side are primarily interested in money. Too often lacking are supporters of students and their education, concern for children rather than institutions. So it is that we have compulsory schooling, not compulsory education. There is still no requirement that students actually be educated, as huge numbers of high school dropouts and functionally illiterate graduates attest.

Dissatisfaction with the system is growing from within and without accompanied by what may ultimately prove to be the leverage of change - the growing fiscal crisis which there will never be enough money to solve. This should be evident by the fact that, in constant dollars, per pupil expenditures in public schools have been rising for decades, and the crisis gets worse not better.

Alternatives are the answer, and they will only work if choice is incorporated, choice for teachers as well as choice for parents and students. As one reporter once wrote, the question is not whether you favor choice for yourself. Everybody does. It is whether you are willing to make it possible for others to exercise that same right.

There may be cause for optimism. As Winston Churchill reportedly said, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they have tried everything else." In schooling we have tried almost everything else. It's time to try democracy, individual freedom, and choice.