Parent Power

President Bush is correct: Accountability is the key to producing youngsters who learn reading, writing and arithmetic.

But accountability to whom?

As congressional negotiators work out details of the new education bill, the president concedes that vouchers don't have the votes; as a practical man, he says the battle is lost. So one of the legs on which education "reform" rested has been amputated; there is no prosthetic substitute.

The essence of vouchers is competition; while the federal payment to the parents of children in failing schools would have been only $1,500 a year, the education establishment and its congressional allies, such as Sen. Ted Kennedy, understood well the import.

Someone was trying to open the door a crack by furnishing parents the wherewithal to take control of their children's schooling. It foretold a momentum that might be fulfilled by the states, which could establish voucher programs in conjunction with the federal payments. Now we're talking about real money.

This was "intolerable" because accountability would devolve, as it should, to mom and dad and the educators they hire.

Author Sheldon Richman notes that even President Bush's first and now gutted plan was on the right track but flawed. If accountability is the touchstone, then federal testing and federal vouchers are several steps removed from home and hearth and the local school.

Mr. Richman calls it "Parent Power." What a novel concept.