The “choice” issue, like so many other new attempts at educational reform, serves once again to highlight the fact that there is something desperately wrong with the current education system. Even though everyone seems to be fully aware of the need for change, no one really knows where to start. In trying to make sense of this need to define the problems plaguing education, many end up latching onto any new idea that even vaguely offers the hope of finally bringing the educational calm and success that everyone so desperately desires. The problem with this hit-and-run approach is that it almost always ends up fragmenting communities and societies that should in fact be pooling their energies and resources on the issue of education reform. Name me ANY reform movement and I'll show you at least two sides for each: one "for" and one "against." Supporters of educational choice have, over time, carefully constructed their set of arguments in support of its implementation. To fully understand this perspective, and before sharing my own, I have selected a collection of quotes from various educational choice advocates that should present, albeit statically, the central issues underlying the concerns of these and many other students, parents, and teachers . As you read them, try to focus on the issues they represent rather than the emotions currently driving them. “It's time to build political strength for parents and children. We know that our urban public school systems are hopelessly broken. We know that unless parents of children attending public schools are able to threaten to enroll their children in competing private schools, public schools will never be held accountable.""Lessons must be learned from the defeat of the Voucher Bill," Joseph Walsh"The most A recent reading test from the National Assessment of Education Progress reports that 30% of students in high schools, 31% of eighth graders and 42% of fourth graders failed to reach "basic" reading levels of those students who spent four to thirteen years in school, they did not even a “partial mastery” of the reading skills expected at their grade level.”“The High Cost of Rationing Literacy,” Martha C. Brown“There is no more important issue today than the education of our children. We might perhaps disagree that our society – crippled by gang violence, teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency – would experience a Renaissance if every child received a quality education?