After successfully outlawing flight by birds in Florida, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against pigs for their failure to take to the skies.


Okay, not exactly. But what they’re doing amounts to the same thing. In January of 2006, the ACLU convinced Florida’s Supreme Court to strike down a voucher program that was letting kids escape from failing public schools. This week, they filed suit against the Palm Beach County public school system for providing no escape from its failing schools.


After killing a program that was already achieving their goal, they are now suing a public school system that cannot possibly achieve their goal.

Dear ACLU,


Before committing years of your time and hundreds of thousands of dollars to this lawsuit, please take a moment and reflect. Public school monopolies don’t fail by choice, they fail by design. Having a court order them to stop failing is like ordering a pig to fly.


When, in the history of the world, have monopolies delivered the relentlessly improving quality, flexibility, innovation, and efficiency that we all want from our education system? Why — given the perennial disappointments of public schooling — do you imagine education monopolies are any different?


Privately, in your own offices and homes, reflect on the kinds of responsive and efficient services you have come to expect in every other field, and ask yourselves: why not harness in education the same free enterprise system that has driven miraculous progress in the rest of our economy? Market forces work just as well in education as in every other field, and your fears about the social effects of real parental choice are not justified by the evidence.