Virginia’s constitution makes it exceedingly hard to establish charter schools, which explains its novel approach in the form of lab schools (“Virginia Breaks the School-Choice Barrier,” The Wall Street Journal, Jul. 4). These are publicly-funded schools under the control of public universities. They will appeal to supporters of parental choice, particularly because they are outside the state’s collective-bargaining agreement.
As readers of this column know, I support parental choice, but I’ve long stressed the intrinsic advantage that charter schools, for example, possess in being largely exempt from the rules facing traditional public schools. I maintain that if the latter were allowed to operate the same way that charters do, there would be little difference in outcomes. I say the same thing applies to lab schools.
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