November 25, 2008 8:49AM # I’ll Tell You What’s Tedious By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) --- SHARE [Jonah Goldberg ](http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/la-oe-goldberg25-2008nov25,1,411741.column)finds “conservative complaints about Barack Obama’s public-schools hypocrisy…all a bit tedious.” Well, aside from my not having actually seen many conservatives complaining about Obama choosing a private school for his kids while telling the rest of us to [support public schools](https://www.cato.org/2008/11/21/the-obamas-walk-away-from-public-schools/), I find arguments like Goldberg’s main one tedious. *Very* tedious. Like, we-should-just-keep-trying-to-force-excellence-out-of-socialism *tedious*. Here’s the meat of Goldberg’s contribution to education reform: > The real issue is why the public schools are unacceptable to pretty much anyone, liberal or conservative, who has other options. His culprit, talk about tedious: > Teachers unions, arguably the single worst mainstream institution in our country today. Now, I’m sure not going to tell you the teachers unions aren’t a pain. They are. But they are *not* our root education problem in any way, shape or form. The root problem is that we have a system in which no one has a choice — that’s right, boring ol’ “choice” — about financing a government education monopoly, and there is little competition, innovation, or anything else decent as a result. Oh, and why does Goldberg think the unions have so much power, anyway? Surely he knows that private-sector unions have been disintegrating for decades while their public-sector cousins keep going strong. That’s because no one can choose *not* to fund the public sector — unless, that is, they enjoy time behind bars — while industries that are disciplined by consumer choice simply can’t afford efficiency-crushing unions. So let’s get one thing straight. School choice — especially *universal* school choice — is not some boring cop-out that dull folks reflexively whimper about because they’ve got nothing better to say. No, it is the [essential ingredient](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9634) to getting an education system that actually works, and no amount of pooh-poohing it for the sake of excitement, giggles, seeming cool, or whatever, can change that. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).